Dr Octopus
Dr Bonser from the University of Reading made the papers this week after being awarded £649,000 to design eight arms that mimic the dexterity and control of an Octopus.
The University is part of a consortium working on the “Octopus Project”
“The OCTOPUS project aims to build a robot that can operate in water over a variety of terrains, explore narrow spaces, grasp objects and manipulate them effectively. Future applications include underwater maintenance, such as ships’ hulls and oil rigs, and the ability to locate and retrieve marine salvage and even black boxes from aircraft.”
The Octopus’s tentacles allow them to perform operations such as opening jam jars and they can squeeze their bodies through the tiniest of spaces.
Other research
Metal sculpture in brass, mounted on an 1800s French Coin
