I'm really struggling to see how this could be useful in space exploration. They claim that the benefit is that it's reconfigurable, so you can send less stuff

I'm really struggling to see how this could be useful in space exploration. They claim that the benefit is that it's reconfigurable, so you can send less stuff to orbit. What they do not talk about is power density - pneumatic actuators do really bad here. Those devices + power packs would have to be huge, way larger than purpose-built electric systems, which would probably destroy the gains from reconfigurability. But that's based on the youtube video, which is typical marketing-speak. The paper is much more toned down. It's a cool idea, but I don't like when people make exploratory research look like it's anywhere near application stage.