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Does the Octopus Hold the Key To Robot Design?

balancedi writes "Simultaneously controling 8 jointless arms without getting them all tangled up is a neat trick that octopuses do with ease. According to a National Geographic article several researchers from around the world think understanding the octopus holds to key to the optimal robot design."

5 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Octi Movement by Red+Weasel · · Score: 5, Informative

    The coolest part about the Movement of Octopus is the fact that only the body desides where to go. It's up to the legs to figure out how they're going to get there.

    If you ever get down the the Aquarium of the Americas you can get a pretty good display of this. Just make sure you make it for one of the feeding times 'cause the feeders do all the classic Octopus tricks(fish in a bottle, fish in a tank, fish with mirrors, mazes, etc).

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    ..which just shows that the human brain is ill-adapted for thinking and was probably designed for cooling the blood-T P
  2. Re:True Story: by avandesande · · Score: 4, Informative

    caring for a salt water animal of any kind is a serious and expensive undertaking.

    Also octopus only live a year so they aren't the best pets if you grow attached.

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    love is just extroverted narcissism
  3. Re:True Story: by BWJones · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you don't mind me asking, what happened to 'Cephus'? you speak of her in the past tense.

    She died of old age. When I got her, I had found her on my SCUBA tank after we had returned home. She was soooo tiny (about the size of my thumbnail), and we were miles away from the ocean by that time. I did not want her to die, so we mixed up some artificial sea water and I carried her home to place her in a 100gal aquarium I had. Fed her with feeder goldfish, but clams and crabs purchased from the local pet store was what she really enjoyed. She lived about two years (which is very good for an octopus), grew to about 13 inches and finally died from old age.

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    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
  4. Plural forms? by NEOtaku17 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Lesson on the correct plural version of Octopus. Very interesting read.

  5. Re:Octopuses???? Or Octopi ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is no generally-agreed plural. Strictly speaking, since it's a Greek word ("Okto", eight, plus "pus", foot) the "correct" plural would be "octopodes". Nobody really likes that, though, and most dictionaries suggest the English neologisms "octopi" or "octopuses". Either is good English usage. (Definitely not "octopii", however, as that would be the plural of "octopius".)