A joint study by biologists and engineers from Singapore, Italy and Austria, after studying the biomechanics of octopuses crawling into narrow holes, drew conclusions for the design of soft search and rescue robots. A new development in soft robotics draws inspiration from octopuses, as these creatures have unique deformation capabilities due to the lack of a rigid skeleton. An octopus can fit into any hole no smaller than its only hard part - its beak.

A joint study by biologists and engineers from Singapore, Italy and Austria, after studying the biomechanics of octopuses crawling into narrow holes, drew conclusions for the design of soft search and rescue robots. A new development in soft robotics draws inspiration from octopuses, as these creatures have unique deformation capabilities due to the lack of a rigid skeleton. An octopus can fit into any hole no smaller than its only hard part - its beak.