The main contribution of this paper is a novel sensory feedback control law
for an octopus arm. The control law is inspired by, and helps integrate,
several observations made by biologists. The proposed control law is distinct
from prior work which has mainly focused on open-loop control strategies.
Several analytical results are described including characterization of the
equilibrium and its stability analysis. Numerical simulations demonstrate
life-like motion of the soft octopus arm, qualitatively matching behavioral
experiments. Quantitative comparison with bend propagation experiments helps
provide the first explanation of such canonical motion using a sensory feedback
control law. Several remarks are included that help draw parallels with natural
pursuit strategies such as motion camouflage or classical pursuit