Overview

• Researchers report that the front four arms accounted for 64% of observed uses across tasks, compared with 36% for the rear four.
• Rear arms most often executed distinct movement patterns such as rolling and the vertical "stelzen" lift.
• The study, published in Scientific Reports, analyzed 25 archival videos of wild octopuses filmed in the Atlantic and Caribbean between 2007 and 2015.
• Subjects included the common octopus and close relatives Octopus insularis and Octopus americanus, with 15 behaviors, 12 arm movements and four movement patterns systematically coded.
• Engineers cite the behavioral rules as templates for soft-robot design, including flexible medical tools such as soft endoscopes that are still in clinical testing.