14 DAY TRIAL // A team of German experts announces the creation of an advanced robotic arm, a device that was designed with inspiration from nature. Its creators modeled their design after the way the elephant trunk is put together and operated.
The large mammals have trunks that are actually a fusion of their upper lip with the base of their nose. The structure extends far outwards, allowing the animals to use it for a variety of purposes.
They can for example collect food that is otherwise out of reach, drink water, fight with each other or predators, or greet other members of the group using so-called trunk shakes.
But it's the design of the organ that really set engineers at the German automation company Festo on the path to creating the Bionic Handling Assistant (BHA). The instrument can be safely used inside small quarters, the team says.
This will enable people to use it in schools, museums, hospitals, homes and rehabilitation centers, or wherever robotic assist is needed. The elderly could benefit from the extra support as well.
While conventional synthetic arms such as the Canadarm-2 on the International Space Station are fashioned around a metal skeleton that contains a lot of tubes, the BHA is literally more similar to an elephant trunk.
It was constructed respecting norms from the field of biomimicry, which means that it imitates the real-life organ after it is inspired as closely as possible, in design as well as in engineering aesthetic.
The main thinking in this field of research is that nature had millions of years to make something like an elephant trunk evolve up to this point. As such, this approach of doing things is one of the most efficient for getting a certain job done.
But the scientists hit a snag when they found out that elephants move their trunks via interactions of some 40,000 muscles. Aware that current technologies do not allow for such levels of replication, the experts adopted another solution.
They created devices capable of inflating very small air bladders located throughout the robotic arm, which granted them about the same level of control over movement and compliance as an elephant has over its own trunk.
The robotic arms ends in the FinGripper, an instrument that allows for the device to grab holds of delicate objects without breaking them. Such an ability is essential if BHA is to work with humans.
LiveScience reports that the arm also includes sensors throughout its length, which tell it to stop if it meets or bumps over an obstacle, such as a piece of furniture, or maybe a human.