Frontier stage
Keynote

Soft robotics for good: From marine species to ocean conservation

In person
  • Date
    8 July 2025
    Timeframe
    14:40 - 15:00 CEST
    Duration
    20 minutes
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    Despite their importance for human life, oceans are far less explored than other ecosystems on our planet. The sea bottom, or benthic zone, is largely unexplored, despite being home to 98% of marine species, hosting impactful human activities and accumulating pollutants. Robots help underwater, mostly in the water column. We can learn new strategies from benthic species. Among them, the octopus stands out for its manipulation, swimming, and locomotion capabilities.

    The key lesson from octopuses is how to use a complex body efficiently. As in many more examples in nature, motor behaviour is shaped by the body and its interaction with the environment. Octopus locomotion uses soft legs that shorten and elongate to walk underwater, avoiding the need to move rigid limbs against water drag. Octopus arm movements also reduce water drag by avoiding rigid translations and instead leveraging the arm softness and extreme deformability to unfold in water.

    In robotics, such strategies simplify control, reduce computation, and ultimately lower energy need. We can bring this concept to an extreme by building purely mechanical robots, with no electronics. components. Such designs enable biodegradable robots that help monitor, preserve, and restore ocean ecosystems without leaving a footprint.

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