Posted on 11/11/2020 10:36:26 AM PST by BenLurkin
[E]ngineering researchers from the University of New South Wales in Sydney were inspired by an elephant’s trunk and designed what looks more like a robotic tongue that can firmly grasp objects by wrapping around them like a snake.
An elephant’s trunk can have as many 40,000 muscles it uses to manipulate its long appendage with surprising dexterity, as well as millions of nerve endings allowing it to feel what it’s grasping in order to know how much pressure to apply.
The gripper doesn’t have quite as many muscles as an elephant’s trunk—zero, to be exact—but instead relies on materials that change their structure from rigid to flexible as heating and cooling are applied, and by layering fabrics with different heat-sensitive properties, the artificial trunk can coil itself up. The gripper also incorporates a real-time force sensor that’s 15 times more sensitive than previous applications of the technology, allowing the robot to know by feel alone when a gentle grasp is needed. While the gripper is a great example of biomimicry, it’s also designed to be an alternative to more traditional robot grippers designed and built to function like a human’s hand using multiple fingers that can bend with limited mobility.
The researchers are optimistic their robo-trunk could be commercialized in as little as a year’s time assuming they find an “industry partner” that can help them solve manufacturing issues. As to who would buy it? Aside from industrial and medical uses, imagine a tool that easily retrieves dropped french fries while you’re driving? Someone’s going to make a small fortune with this thing.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Pussy Gripper?
Is there any danger of this ‘device’ getting locked into place? Extraction may be difficult.
Leave Pinky out of this sordid thread.
I have a bit of a beer gut and sometimes people ask if I’m pregnant. I say yup already know what its going to be too, It’s gonna to be an elephant cause the trunks already out
I’ll take Hunter and two hookers for $500, Alex
He’s perfect for it, though.
He’s a kleptomaniac who grabs everything with his tail.
One time, we were stopped for suspected “shop lifting” leaving PetCo because he had a hamster water bottle and a cat brush gripped in his tail, which was wrapped behind me where I couldn’t see he’d been swiping stuff off the racks as I walked by.
:D
How would you ‘cuff him?
*Exactly*.
That’s why he was not arrested.
:D
[actually, the cashiers thought it was hilarious and asked me “why he wanted that stuff”. who knows?]
A snake stealing a hairbrush a little odd.
Kamalasutra Harris slurped her way into high places
I could not even begin to guess at the workings of his mind.
[fur envy, maybe?]
:)
“ There *are* no 10mm sockets.”
“I don’t know where they go but they’re all gone.”
Check the bilge.
Do they call it Harris?.
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