FESTO Use Biomimicry to Create Fish Tail and Robotic Elephant Trunk

FESTO, the German-based industrial manufacturer and eCATALOGsoultions customer, is rapidly advancing the field of robotics by “borrowing” from nature’s most perfect designs. Video courtesy CBS Sunday Morning News.

FESTO is moving beyond the traditional “rigid” robots, which could pose a danger to humans, as well as delicate products, by creating “soft” robots. Looking to provide solutions to some of the oldest robot-related issues, FESTO is modeling their inventions after the animal kingdom.

Elephant Trunk Robot: Replicating the flexible and bone-less design was no easy task. The super-strong trunk features more then 40,000 flexible muscles.

Fish Tail Gripper: Looking at add a soft grip when handling food and produce items, FESTO created a gripper which “cups” the item when pressure is applied instead of squishing it. Brilliant!

Cool design but I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before…

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