Octopus Robot Creates Smarter, More Energy-Efficient Automation

Octopuses…octopi? Either way, these brilliant aquatic escape artists have always fascinated me. From pranking zookeepers to solving puzzles in the wild, they constantly remind us that they're more than just eight arms with suckers. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if suckers on my arms (or a tail, or wings…) wouldn't be more useful than opposable thumbs.

That's exactly why engineers lean on biomimicry, copying clever designs from nature when the human body isn't always the best model for the job. Case in point: a team from the University of Bristol's Faculty of Science and Engineering just published a study in Science Robotics on a new octopus-inspired robot.

Instead of rigid joints, motors, and processors, this robot uses fluid flows of air or water to move and suction like an octopus arm. While it can stick or suction to things, the real innovation is that it can also sense its environment, adapting to what it's suctioning to—without a central computer.

If a suction unit touches, say, an egg, it "knows" how firmly to grip without breaking it, adjusting automatically as it goes. The team refers to this ability as "embodied suction intelligence", since the robot's structure and physics handle the decision-making, mimicking how an octopus's nervous system is spread through its arms.

This suction intelligence works by coupling suction flow with fluid circuitry, allowing the robot to gently grasp delicate objects and even use adaptive curling to encapsulate items with irregular or unknown geometries. By analyzing pressure responses within the suction cups, it can achieve high-level perception—detecting contact, classifying its environment and surface roughness, and even predicting how much force an object is applying back.

The team wrote in their paper that, "Octopuses exploit an efficient neuromuscular hierarchy to achieve complex dexterous body manipulation, integrating sensor-rich suckers, in-arm embodied computation, and centralized higher-level reasoning. As in octopuses, suction intelligence executes most of its computation within lower-level local fluidic circuitries, and minimum information is transmitted to the high-level decision-making of the 'brain.'"

Lead author Tianqi Yue explained that this new octopus-like robot builds on the team’s earlier work, creating an artificial suction cup that mimics how octopuses stick to rocks using soft materials and water sealing:

"This research brings that work on, from using a suction cup like an octopus sucker to connect to objects to using 'embodied suction intelligence'—mimicking key aspects of the neuromuscular structure of the octopus in soft robotic systems."

The team is currently working on making the system smaller and more reliable for real-world use. They also aim to combine it with smart materials and AI to improve its adaptability and decision-making in complex environments.

"It's fascinating how a simple suction cup, with no electronics inside, can feel, think, and act—just like an octopus arm," concluded Tianqi. "This could help robots become more natural, soft, and intuitive to use."