[HN Gopher] Mimicking an Elephant Trunk
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       Mimicking an Elephant Trunk
        
       Author : Luc
       Score  : 7 points
       Date   : 2024-06-14 18:13 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (physics.aps.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (physics.aps.org)
        
       | h2odragon wrote:
       | > why does it have to have so many other muscles, and when are
       | those used?
       | 
       | Elephants aren't just controlling the direction of the trunk, but
       | the diameter of the interior tube in several "chambers" up and
       | down, tho. They pump water, they must be.
       | 
       | Tapir tools are worth study for much the same reasons. Harder to
       | write a research grant proposal there.
        
       | gumby wrote:
       | Shades of the 1968 Minsky tentacle arm:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuXQPdd0hjI
       | 
       | It had 12 joints, though each had a hydraulic actuator rather
       | than a tendon mechanism (i.e. not three muscles lke this model).
       | But as an undergraduate he had fiddled with the actuation of
       | arthropod joints and claws: https://cyberneticzoo.com/underwater-
       | robotics/1968-minsky-be...
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | Snake robots aren't that hard to make. The Tesla auto charger
       | demo was a good idea.[1] People thought it was creepy, but it's
       | much simpler mechanically than other ways of doing the same
       | thing.
       | 
       | The snake part is just disks with cables through them. The motors
       | are all in the base. So the part that might get damaged can be
       | made easily replaceable.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWXIZMtxB6Q
        
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       (page generated 2024-06-18 23:01 UTC)