This here could be interesting for the LMR-Community: The Octopus IP is a “soft robot”, that uses a principle derived from the muscles of an octopus. It’s made of rubber and strings - and it looks extremely sleek. The research for the Octopus Project is funded by the 7th FP of the EU. But, yeah. It should be also possible to assemble this at home for the freaks!
“The final robotic octopus prototype will be capable of locomotion on different substrates, of squeezing into small apertures, of dextrous manipulation by coordinating the eight arms, of anchoring in order to exert forces on external environment; of controlling a flexible structure with virtually infinite DOFs.”(see video at Eggshell-Robotics)