What you’re looking at is a soft, worm-like robot that can burrow through sand

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Georgia Institute of Technology showcased a soft robot that can swim under sand. The bot will surely remind some of the flesh-eating graboids from Tremors or the giant sand worm in Dune. And, in fact, the long-term plan is to send this type of robot into space and use it to help traverse extraterrestrial environments, like the Moon.