Inspiration From Animals: An Unorthodox Robot Comes to Life!

This tentacle robot is horrifying but can prove quite useful in handling delicate objects

Robotics is a fast-growing industry that has made a deep-rooted impression in almost every industry it has touched. Most of the value generated by robotics is earned from service robots that are used in various industries like logistics, healthcare, security, and other areas of service. Researchers are innovating day and night to ensure that robots become as efficient as humans to make our lives easier. But with the growing number of research and innovations, it seems like robots are becoming creepier. Recently, the launch of a new tentacle robot has made quite a buzz in the tech industry. The robot looks so terrifying that some even believe that it is a gift from the unit of Harvard researchers to the tech community for Halloween.

Harvard’s robotic tentacle gripper is a robotic arm with tentacle fingers for grasping extremely delicate objects like houseplants and glassware. The engineers used hollow rubber tubing to build the robotic hand which also contains flesh-colored spaghetti that can coil around. Robotic arms are created to mimic human hands that can be efficient in holding delicate or heavy objects to entirely eradicate human flaws.

Instead of optimizing neural networks, sensors, feedback loops, and artificial intelligence systems, Harvard researchers have chosen to rely on basic concepts like inflatable tubing that can wrap around objects easily and does not require sensing, planning, or feedback control. The idea is derived from studying other animals, in this case, the anatomy of sea creatures like octopi and jellyfish. By taking inspiration from beautiful nature that robotic researchers have successfully created a horrifying new tentacle robot that might prove quite useful in different domains like healthcare and agriculture.