Talon Gets Elephant Trunk

NewScientist.com news service
David Hambling

Most robots rely on mechanical gripping jaws that have difficulty grabbing large or irregularly shaped objects. Replacing these with tentacle-like manipulators could make robots more nimble and flexible.

The tentacle-like manipulators, known as "Octarms", resemble an octopus's limb or an elephant's trunk. They were developed through a project called OCTOR (sOft robotiC manipulaTORs), which involves several US universities and is funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Just like a real tentacle, an Octarm simply wraps itself around an object in order to manoeuvre it.

Each Octarm is powered by compressed air and has surface pressure sensors, positional sensors and a camera mounted at its tip.

The Octarms developed so far are each around a metre long, although the design could easily be scaled up or down, the researchers say. Only one has been attached to a robot at a time, but the researchers say several could work together in future.

Check out OCTOR videos here


New Scientist Tech - Breaking News - Robotic tentacles get to grips with tricky objects