ROBOTIC ARMS MODELED AFTER OCTOPUS

[Anchor Lead]

Octopuses can catch hundreds of objects of various sizes and shapes. Korean researchers have developed robotic arms modeled after the arms of an octopus.

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A soft-bodied animal. Octopuses can transform their suckers freely to grab hundreds of objects of various sizes and shapes. A robot modeled after the arms of an octopus has been developed. It can pour water from a bottle to a kettle, turn on a gas stove to heat the water and then pour it into two glasses. This versatile robot can also scoop coffee powder and sugar to make coffee and even brew tea by inserting a tea bag into a cup. It can also preheat a frying pan and fry pancakes like a real cook. This robot uses its suction power similar to that of an octopus' suckers to grab objects with a smooth surface, like milk bottles.

[Soundbite] Song Sung-hyuk(Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials) : "When thinking about animals that can grab objects using suction power we realized that octopuses can do it well. That's why we used an octopus as a model."

These robotic arms are almost as delicate as human hands. They can even take out medicine from a storage box, fill a syringe and even administer an injection into a person's arm.

[Soundbite] Park Chan-hoon(Research Director Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials) : "We are collecting data on durability. We will be able to commercialize it as soon as we can supply it to the market."

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials says these robotic arms can be used at coffee shops, restaurants and manufacturing sites. It plans to add a voice recognition function in the future to expand the robot's capabilities.