Robot octopus arm could lead to safer surgery

The device, which mimics the behaviour of an octopus arm, has been designed to enable surgeons to easily access remote, confined regions of the body and, manipulate soft organs without damaging them.

According to its developers, a team from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy the device could help reduce the number of instruments and entry incisions necessary in surgical operations, by using different parts of the arm to manipulate and operate on organs simultaneously.

Octopus arms have no rigid skeletal support and can easily adapt to the surrounding environment by twisting, changing their length or bending in any direction at any point along the arm. The octopus can also, however, vary the stiffness of its arms, temporarily transforming these flexible limbs into stiffened segments to allow the octopus to move and interact with objects.

To achieve the same effect in the robotic arm, the team constructed a device that was made from two interconnecting identical modules.