my octopus teacher — A documentary about the smarts of cephalopods — A team of engineers was inspired to create a material that could grip and release objects with rough, irregular surfaces. These new materials have many potential uses, from helping people with disabilities grasp objects to creating robots that assist with underwater cleaning, as demonstrated in the following image. . cutting edge science report.
michael bartlettThe principal investigator, a professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Research and Engineering, remembers a key scene from the movie. The idea is that an octopus sits on the ocean floor, but remains hidden under a pile of rocks and shells attached to its suckers. When a diver approaches, the animal immediately releases the items and runs away.
“This kind of ability to grab something tightly and then let go almost instantly is what caught our attention about the octopus’ ability,” Bartlett said.
Octopus grip engineering
Bartlett’s research group often looks to nature for inspiration. His group designed a device with a flexible skin that mimics gecko adhesive.
“Nature has a lot of very powerful solutions for dealing with certain types of problems,” Bartress says. “The way we think about bio-inspired engineering is to actually look at living organisms and understand how they perform this function.”
The biggest challenge in moving from the octopus inspiration to grippy applications was investigating how suction cups could stick firmly to uneven surfaces. Early research using sticky-footed geckos demonstrated that it is possible to develop materials that stick to flat, smooth surfaces. The ability to do the same on rough and irregular surfaces proved to be a bigger challenge.
One of the many surprising facts about octopuses that drove this research was that they have as many as 2000 suckers. Each can be controlled individually. The researchers focused on the structure of the sucker and were immediately struck by the outer ring of the sucker. They noticed that there was a curved flat structure called a funnel.
read more: How can artificial gloves inspired by octopus tentacles help humans?
understanding nature to solve problems
The team then essentially reverse-engineered its structure by designing a flexible handle with a tip made of membrane that can quickly change shape. In the experiment, the researchers constructed piles of stones of various shapes, sizes, and textures on the floor of an aquarium filled with water.
The material’s success is a testament to Bartlett’s nature-inspired engineering efforts.
“If we can understand the mechanisms that nature uses, we can use better engineering and science to create solutions to the most difficult problems,” he says.
But while this new material is promising, it’s still not as effective as octopus tentacles and suction cups.
“This is a step in the direction of creating very exciting capabilities for attaching and detaching underwater or wet objects,” says Bartlett. “Still, there is still work to be done.”
read more: We share smarts with octopuses and now we know why
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul spent more than 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life sciences policy and global scientist career issues. He started his career in newspapers but switched to scientific magazines. His research has appeared in publications such as Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
