Octobot uses a microfluidic logic circuit designed by team member George Whitesides to control the reaction that turns small amounts of hydrogen peroxide into large amounts of gas. It's in charge of starting up and stopping the reaction and of pumping the gas into the machine's tentacles. The current version of Octobot is only around the size of an SD card and can only wiggle its tentacles. But the team plans to build one that can actually crawl and swim like a real octopus. One of the researchers, Engineering and Applied Sciences Professor Robert Wood, said "[t]his research demonstrates that [scientists] can easily manufacture the key components of a simple, entirely soft robot, which lays the foundation for more complex designs."