Science on Tap: Ink-credible, Octopus-Inspired Robot Arms

How can robots better complete rescue missions in cluttered areas? That’s one of the questions Noel Naughton addressed at the February 27, 2025, Science on Tap event “How does an octopus control its arms?” Naughton explained the important potential uses for an octopus-inspired robotic arm and brought prototypes for the audience to try out for themselves. 

Naughton, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, first became interested in the intersections of mechanical engineering and anatomy during graduate school, when he studied how non-invasive MRI techniques can tell us about a person’s muscles. From there, he began to study how biology — specifically muscle structures — in other animals can be used to improve robotics. 

Octopuses provide an alternate way for engineers to envision arms for robots; rather than having biceps and triceps muscles working with bones like in humans, octopuses only have one beak and no bones. Consequently, octopuses can fit through any hole their beak can fit through, making them great escape artists. Boneless, robotic octopus arms can prove vital in search and rescue missions in a cluttered environment, Naughton said, potentially getting into areas where the hard human-armed robots cannot.

Naughton brought a simple version of how these octopus arms work, a curved tentacle controlled by two fishing lines. Pulling on the fishing line controls which way the arm bends. Naughton passed out these arms, designed by a lab in China and created by his graduate students, with small cups and golf balls and challenged participants to use the arms to “kick” the balls into the cups. At first, participants struggled to control these arms, since they could bend in many different directions. In no time, though, people were trying to do trick shots with their golf balls!

When it came time for questions, Naughton spoke to a wide range of octopus- and robot-related topics. He discussed the similarities between elephant trunks, human tongues, and octopus arms; how 60 percent of an octopus’s brian tissue is in its arms, and how chromatophores are what allow an octopus to change its color. He also shared the process of developing the robotic arm prototype, which is intentionally designed in the shape of a logarithmic spiral. He even answered a question about why octopuses don’t fight their own arms — their arms excrete a chemical letting them know if it is theirs or not. 

Thank you to Noel Naughton for sharing his story and to Rising Silo Brewery for hosting! Science on Tap is a monthly event sponsored and supported by the Center for Communicating Science and by Virginia Tech's chapter of Sigma Xi. Come out to our next event at 5:30 p.m. April 24, 2025, for a neuroscience-themed trivia night.

By Bria Weisz, Center for Communicating Science graduate assistant