A team of university researchers have created what they call the world's first completely "soft" and self-contained robot -- one that operates without pistons, wires, pincer fingers or a plasma sphere in the hole where the brain is supposed to be.
It's called the Octobot, because it looks a little bit like an octopus and is also a little bit like a robot.
The bouncy castle of robots
Octobot runs on gas so is a sort of pneumatic robot, with a chemical reaction transforming its onboard hydrogen peroxide liquid fuel into a gas that runs into its limbs and inflates them. So it's about as robotic as a bouncy castle or a balloon animal, although through sequential manipulation of its limbs it could presumably learn how to walk one day.
The really clever part is how they used a microfluidic logic circuit to control these limb movements, ensuring the soft robot doesn't need a solid chipset inside it to weakly waggle its tentacles.
Co-author of the paper Ryan Truby said of its conception: "The entire system is simple to fabricate. By combining three fabrication methods -- soft lithography, molding, and 3-D printing -- we can quickly manufacture these devices."
So as with most clever new modern things, they just need to find a use for it now they've made it.