The Octopus Project posted this video to…

The Octopus Project posted this video to their YouTube channel with zero explanation, but we do know a couple things about it. First, those big tentacles at the front are labeled as "SMA Arms," which means that they're actuated by a shape-memory alloy that changes is length when heated, no servos or anything necessary. The other six arms are silicone with a steel cable inside, and this steel cable is attached to a bunch of nylon cables, and by manipulating those nylon cables, the tentacle can be made to wiggle around and even grip things.

More info here: http://www.octopusproject.eu/

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/robotic-octopus-takes-first-betentacled-steps#.T4MBau3UY24.facebook

robotic octopus-like crawling_SMAplusSilicone.avi

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