About Octopus Robotics

Founded in Portland, Oregon in 2013, we are passionate about providing fundamental technology for next-generation robots that can work safely alongside humans.

Academic/Business Partnerships

We believe that technology has wide application to the fields of motion control, automation, and human-robot interactivity. We are actively looking for partnerships with innovative research laboratories and businesses interested in applying robotics technology towards solving worthwhile problems.

Please contact us if you are interested in helping develop robotic applications, especially those involving:

  • A repetitive, dirty or dangerous task unsuitable for a person.
  • A need for humans and robots to safely work in close proximity with one another.
  • A problem that is too complex or expensive to solve with conventional automation technologies.
  • A problem need a tool to augment the strength and precision of a human worker for a specialized task.

FAQ

Do you build Octopus Robots?

We don’t literally make Octopus Robots, but we aim to design robots with similar characteristics: incredible intelligence, superior dexterity, and a hankerin’ for tasty mollusks. Creating a machine with even two out of three of those qualities would be considered a success by most experts in the field.

What is the plural of Octopus, anyway?

The word “Octopus” comes to English from the Greek word meaning “eight-footed,” an unusual choice in naming for what is clearly an eight-armed animal, suggesting that the Greeks were too busy developing philosophy and civilization to become good marine biologists.

Centuries later, some Latin-speaking people came along and felt very proud of themselves for having learned how to speak a language with so many types of grammatical weapons called “declensions.” Unfortunately, these weapons destroyed their masters by dividing cephalopod enthusiasts into two groups: one that felt the plural should be “octopi” and the another that preferred saying “octopodes.” The ensuing grammar war doomed the Latin language to extinction.

Even more centuries later, a sensible English-speaking people tired of conflict broke tradition and decided to pluralize a word by simply adding “s” or “es” to its end, saving much bloodshed and giving us the lovely word “octopuses”.