Doctor Octopus’ arms a reality thanks to German engineers

Festo’s intelligent ‘Dr.Octopus’ arms.

Earlier scientific advancement showed us that Spider-Man’s webbing is pretty much a real thing now. This naturally got me excited because it meant that I was one step closer to becoming Spider-Man, all I need now is to find a radioactive spider to bite me. However another scientific advancement means that if I do eventually become Spider-Man there might be a real-life supervillain waiting for me.

That’s because German engineers have created intelligent robot arms capable of learning movements similar to how a baby learns. What the developers have realised however is that their robot arms closely resemble the arms of Spider-Man’s #2 arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus.

Pocket Lint reports

"The German manufacturer, Festo, created a concept version of the arms in 2010. But these pneumatic artificial muscles were not intelligent enough to move with grace or dexterity. By using this new intelligent learning software the arms effectively have muscle memory.The arms are able to “remember” previous movements so when going to pick something up their artificial “muscle memory” is able to act without “thought”. That’s a lot of quotation marks as comparison to human muscles is hard to avoid since this machine works so similarly."

Here’s a video of the arms in action

Those of you that have seen Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 will know that smart-learning robotic arms with the power to crush and destroy human beings are never a good idea as it was the arms that overcame Dr. Otto Octavius and turned him towards a life of crime as the super-villain Dr. Octopus. This is pretty much what Festo have created here.

I’d better find that radioactive spider quickly, the world’s going to need a hero.

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