Meet the world's first soft-bodied robot

The scientists' interest with the soft-bodied robot writhing in recent years. The soft body more makes robot more flexible in order to be in confined spaces or when dealing with finer objects safely.

The octopus-shaped robot is a perfect blueprint for the kind of soft-bodied robots. A team of scientists from Harvard University to bring this cephalopod design into the future. They succeeded in creating of the 'Octobot', the world's first soft-bodied robot.

The Octobot is supported by a network of pneumatic embedded in the body and tentacles, whereas the tentacles expand and contract as they fill wiyh gas, propelling it forwards. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1dvZwb)

Octobot has a height of less than 2 cm (0.8 inches) approximately the size of the palm of a human. The robot can walk for between four and eight minutes before running out of fuel. THe Octobot can run up to 8 minutes with 1 milliliter of fuel. 50 percent of their fuel is hydrogen peroxide solution. The larger versions can remain active for a longer time according to the amount of fuel.

The Octobot made of silicone rubber. Its brain was a flexible microfluidic circuit that directs the flow of liquid fuel through the channel using the valve.

"Just the brain, electronics, and batteries of component parts are hard," said Daniela Rus a robot expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. "This work is new and really interesting."

"Now need to do is how to reprogram the robot to perform different actions, respond to the environment, and not just do a pre-order program," said Robert Shepherd an engineer from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | IFLSCIENCE]

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