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This paper explores a new hybrid actuation principle combining pneumatic and tendon-driven actuators for a soft robotic manipulator. The fusion of these two actuation principles leads to an overall antagonistic actuation mechanism whereby pneumatic actuation opposes tendon actuation - a mechanism commonly found in animals where muscles can oppose each other to vary joint stiffness. We are taking especially inspiration from the octopus who belongs to the class of Cephalopoda; the octopus uses its longitudinal and transversal muscles in its arms to achieve varied motion patterns; activating both sets of muscles, the octopus can control the arm stiffness over a wide range. Our approach mimics this behavior and achieves comparable motion patterns, including bending, elongation and stiffening. The proposed method combines the advantages of tendon-driven and pneumatic actuated systems and goes …