Traditional 3D imaging requires multiple cameras, but EyeRIS captures all the visual data in a single shot, a crucial advantage for working in deep, remote, and dynamic underwater environments.
“For the first time, we can get really detailed measurements of fine-scale movements of an animal body,” Huffard said. “The data that we’ve collected gives us information like the entire surface of the animal — how does the animal’s whole body move and change and deform?”
One of the most intriguing findings was how the octopuses use their arms when crawling across the sea floor, creating “hinge” points — fixed locations along the arm that act like temporary joints during movement. “They’re not moving that hinge point or that contact point all along the arm,” Katija said. “In fact, it’s really just happening at a constrained location.”
By concentrating strain and bend around these fixed points, the octopuses make it easier to control their limbs. “This allows them to have simple, but sophisticated, control of their arms,” Huffard said.
Engineers have looked to octopuses when designing what they call “soft-bodied” robots, which can slink and squirm into confined spaces inaccessible to humans or even more rigid robots.
They have been used in search and rescue operations, manufacturing and even space exploration.
And this study improves our understanding of how octopuses move, and could help reimagine robotics for these and other areas.
In the medical field, for example, soft-bodied robots are used for noninvasive surgery, prosthetics and more.
Beyond its engineering applications, Katija emphasized that EyeRIS offers a new, noninvasive way to study marine life. Rated for use down to more than 13,000 feet, it can be deployed on remotely operated vehicles to study animals from the sea surface to the deep seafloor.
She also stressed the importance of studying these species in their natural, and often vulnerable, habitats. “We’re studying animals in environments that are really threatened thanks to human activities,” she said. “Really understanding these animals in their natural environment is incredibly important before these systems change, and in some cases, irreparably.”