“We developed the robot to be able to swim quickly, and to be the first unrestrained robot that generates jet impulses to move quickly like a squid by changing its body shape,” said Michael T. Tolle, one of the most prominent authors of the research and a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California..

The Squid robot is made of a soft material called an acrylic polymer, with hard few parts made by 3D printing.

The purpose of using soft robots is to avoid harming fish and coral reefs, which may be damaged by hard robots. The research team, which includes robotics experts and experts in computer simulations and experimental fluid dynamics, used the squid model for its velocity thanks to the propulsion mechanism..