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Wily Octopi Walk on Two Arms
lousyd writes "Offering hope for new forms of ambulatory robots, biologist Christine L. Huffard, at UC Berkeley, has caught individual octopi sneaking away from predators by using two of their arms as legs. They use the other six arms to make themselves look like coconuts or algae. The research is being done as part of a project on robotics. This reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the cows drop to all fours when humans come around, but resume standing on two legs otherwise." And I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords.
And I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords.
Octopus are spooky smart. They are pretty good problem solvers, they have excellent vision and a bizarre sense of curiosity. They will explore just about everything they can access, and have distinct personalities. They are in all likelihood the smartest organisms in the sea second to cetaceans. I wrote in a previous discussion on Slashdot about my pet octopus, Cephus (short for cephalopod), but that was only one instance of amazing behaviors I had witnessed. I have also dived off the Pacific Northwest with giant pacific red octopus (Octopus dofleini) and found them to be quite curious and for the most part docile (this is in contrast to squid which are truly ruthless aliens that would kill you if given the slightest chance) unless you piss em off and which point they usually simply want to get away. However, I have seen them steal items from divers and swim off with them as well.
The interesting thing about robotics and control of complex systems like this is the computational control required of such structures. Octopus can almost seemingly turn themselves to liquid and fit through the most amazingly small spaces, yet their strength would amaze (and I suspect scare) you. Even my pet octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) who was about a foot long could generate incredible forces from very muscular arms. The giant octopus would be so strong, they could likely (literally) tear you apart if they were not so docile. Here is the deal though: They need an aqueous environment to move effectively. I suspect that for robotics teams, some combination of hydrostatic muscles and exoskeletons would be necessary, which now that I am thinking about it could be huge for artificial limbs for amputees. Right now the most advanced artificial limbs have internally driven servos that have limits on torque that are quite low. This technology could open the door for more capable artificial limbs and exoskeletons to enhance human movement as well as robotics.
Oh, other links of interest to the original Science paper are here, but you need a subscription to see the full text article. The movies linked there though are free.
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Mind you, a large clump of reddish flesh walking along a sandy seabed with greenish water as a background is not what I would call camoflauged.
What better way to ring in the opening of the Hardware section than with... invertebrate biology? Wait, WTF?
Cthulhu fhtagn, Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
SIERRA TANGO FOXTROT UNIFORM
Just make sure they don't get their tentacles on any firearms.
Obligatory Far Side cartoon
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
I've never been aware of being close to large squid and couldn't begin to guess their mindset, but I've swum amongst thousands of modest sized squid who have exhibited no hostility whatsoever.
In all seriousness, I've found squid to be some of the coolest creatures I've ever seen, and they can be very hard to see. They usually make themselves appear to be just like water, which is probably useful for animals that most things would find to be tender and yummy. So if you're looking for squid, you don't quite look for anything tangible, mostly you look for an odd change in the refraction of the water, and then you see if the refraction has eyes.
If you can do this, and it is admittedly an odd skill, keep looking, and you may find that the eyes are studying you very intentedly (and I always assumed without malice!) Often once you see one you will realize that you are surrounded by hundreds of them, and once they realize you see them and don't seem to be a threat, they sort of 'uncloak'. Their skin is the coolest thing you have ever seen, it almost has a television like effect, as it pulses and flows with many colors, very fast and trippy.
They have the oddest motion, they approach you tentacles first, but they flee tentacles back, and as they watch you, they pulse back and forth in curiosity (maybe that is malice!) and fear, with their colors and patterns pulsing in time. I have always felt that they are communicating with a visual language, though obviously that language lacks phrases like "Stay away from the boat with the bright lights!"
I agree with you that octopuses are super cool, I sometimes look for them when I snorkel, and again looking for an octopus is like looking for something that isn't quite not there. They have great camoflage, so mostly you look where they ought to be in a crack or something, and you usually figure out they're there before you quite see them. They have the coolest ambulation and jet powered swimming too.
I've read that octopuses are mostly built of liquid tissue. Can't pretend to understand exactly how that works, but I've seen a large octopus flow through a pinhole, it's the weirdest thing.
hardware.slashdot.org? Where's the slashdot announcement? And why are octopi in the hardware section? Do they run linux or something?
Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
I didn't know coconuts 'sneaked' away from predators away? What do they do, roll away innocently whistling?
English is not Greek, and, like it or not, "octopuses" and "octopi" are both listed in dictionaries of the English language, but "octopodes" are not.
:)
Octopi here, but no octopodes.
Or to put it another way, I'm sympathetic to your argument, but I still disagree with you.
I laugh at your claim of the existence of an "automobile". Surely anyone inventing such a device would be educated enough to know that it should be called either an "ipsomobile" or an "autokineticon."
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I actually saw a talk by one of the people involved in the work being done at Berkeley on this very subject Thursday. His names Robert J. Full and he's with the Biology dept at Berkeley. His and his students work have inspired an entire host of materials engineering and robotics applications. For instance his work with geckos has lead to work being done on producing nanoscale nonsticky adhesives which are based on van der Waal forces. Also based on his studies of the cockroach(and again his students) we're seeing some robots which are capable of climbing up walls and transversing really really rough terrain. Definitely someone to keep track of if you're interested in biological inspiration for engineering.
I don't care what you say, all I need is my Wumpabet soup.
The plural of "octopus" is "octopuses."
"Octopi" as a plural started as an ignorant mistake.
Read more about it here.
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