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As design catches up to robotics computing, mechanical arms get cooler

By Rain Noe - November 24, 2010

in Tech | Video

If I asked you to sketch the archetypal industrial robotic arm, you'd probably draw something like a swing-arm lamp: Straight members connected by elbow-like joints, perhaps on a rotating base like a shoulder. The finite, easily-calculable axes of motion of such an arrangement lent themselves well to the early days of robot design and the primitive computer systems that had to manage their motion.

Now, as those computer systems become capable of far more complex calculations, it's only natural that design would follow suit. Thus German engineering company Festo has designed a robotic arm based not on the human arm, but on an elephant trunk--or actually, what resembles three elephant trunks bound together.

The elegant, biomimetic design of Festo's Bionic Handling Assistant is capable of "more degrees of freedom and an unparalleled mass/payload ratio." What's even cooler is how the trunk expands, contracts and turns by alternately inflating or deflating air sacs within each vertebrae-like selection, which you can see in the animation below. A more aesthetically-pleasing performance is not a prerequisite of industrial efficiency, but it sure is a neat by-product.

via tg daily

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Ajay

14 years ago

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Neat. Excellent approach to a very complicated problem, and a very a elegant solution.

Kudos to team behind the effort.
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Mattias Sjoberg

14 years ago

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reminds me of the evil metal-hands on the back of the scientist in the 2d Spider Man movie... I sure hope this works better.
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Scott

14 years ago

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Very cool, but it does remind me of the apendages that are on some diabolical villain's robot or some alien death machine. Like the final evil robot in The Incredibles.
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GBUK

14 years ago

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When reality plays catch-up with fiction... excellent stuff!
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Will Forty

14 years ago

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Incredible
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gmoke

14 years ago

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Dr Octopus, I presume.
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-Joel-Kramka-

14 years ago

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This is really cool because it can probably run off of an air compressor that shops already own. Also we can now have a real Dr. Octopus.
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cru

14 years ago

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Well... someone fancies Dr. Octopus.
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