The Octopus: Our Ocean’s Mightiest Hero!
Super heros, we all love them! They have the coolest abilities that we could only dream of having. From super speed to invisibility, their super missions are always exciting to see! These superheroes seemingly live in our imaginations, but that is all but true. The animal kingdom is littered with creatures that each have their own superpowers! Have you ever dreamed of having a superpower that would help you stick to walls and stretch your limbs? Check out the marine animal, the octopus!
Octopuses are amazing sea creatures that scientists love to find more and more about everyday. These clever animals have boss brains and arms that can do incredible things! Scientists have been observing videos filmed on special cameras of octopuses and their arms close up to learn how they work. Their studies on these creatures are also helping scientists create robots inspired by how these arms work!
Imagine the octopus’s arms as their superhero tools. They can stretch, twist, and bend in many ways! These arms are like the octopus’s very own superpower. But here’s the big secret: even when the arms are on their own, not attached to the rest of the octopus, they can still do amazing things. It’s like they have a special move!
The octopus has special parts on their arms called “suckers.” These suckers help the octopus in many ways such as grab onto things and move them around. Scientists have always wanted to understand how these suckers work. They found three main ways the suckers do their job. It’s like a “stick and unstick” dance: “Contraction Stick and Unstick,” “Orientation-Contraction Stick,” and “Wave-Like Stick and Unstick.” The octopus uses the first two to stick to things and the third one to let go. It’s a much more complex system than what we could have ever imagined!
If you’ve looked at a tentacle up close, you would notice that the suckers are all different shapes and sizes. Although this is true, scientists couldn’t find a clear connection how the octopus uses them. However, get this! Here’s the cool part: they noticed that how the suckers work might be connected to how the octopus moves its arms. It’s like the octopus’s way of saying, “I’m going to stick now” or “Time to let go.” These signals are an exciting discovery, don’t you think? As if these creatures couldn’t be any smarter!
So, scientists are watching and learning a lot from these sea creatures to make robots that can do amazing things, just like an octopus! It’s like they’re discovering superpowers from the deep blue sea to create fantastic new technologies. Though they may not be seen saving the day, these heroes still help our scientific advancements, one arm at a time!
Röckner, J.L., Arellano, M.D., Zullo, L. (2023). Sucker Attachment and Detachment Patterns in Octopus Vulgaris. In: Meder, F., Hunt, A., Margheri, L., Mura, A., Mazzolai, B. (eds) Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems. Living Machines 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 14157. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38857-6_20
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-38857-6_20
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