Elephant trunks inspire ISELLA robotic arm

It's not often you see a piece of tech touted by its developer as being inspired by something "long, gray, and soft," but that's exactly how the researchers at Germany's prolific Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute are describing their ISELLA robotic arms. Inspired by the finesse and power of an elephant's trunk, the team developed a unique redundant motorized "muscle" called DOHELIX, consisting of dual drive shafts intertwined around each other in a double helix, resulting in a system that can be scaled from micrometer-scale muscles to cranes in container seaports. The protoype ISELLA unit (pictured) has ten DOHELIX muscles, enough to mimic the flexibility of the human arm, but the team expects even better results when the system is ready to ship in two years -- here's hoping some enterprising carnie rigs up the next generation of elephant rides.

[Via MedGadget]

[Tyler @ Jul 6th 2007 2:02PM]

MYOMER! OMG!

(Battletech fans should know what I'm talking about!)

[CmdrFire @ Jul 6th 2007 3:36PM]

Heh, that's exactly what I thought...

[Woogs @ Jul 6th 2007 7:09PM]

Dibs on getting to be the first Mackey pilot ....

[Ken @ Jul 6th 2007 8:30PM]

I'm gonna get MASC and go twice as fast!

[Frank @ Jul 6th 2007 2:14PM]

This thing makes me want to cut off my arm now so I won't be left behind in the "super-human strength" movement.

[Zarniwoop @ Jul 6th 2007 2:16PM]

Can't ... Stop ... reaching .. .... for ... peanuts !

[murray @ Jul 6th 2007 2:49PM]

I'd give my right arm for one of those.

[SimbaDogg @ Jul 6th 2007 2:54PM]

Bionic body parts...here they come.

[steve @ Jul 6th 2007 3:51PM]

so is this the first step towards creating "cloned part-robot humans used by organized crime"? Looks like i need to place an order for that "Nano suit" I've been eyeballing.

Here's to a bleak, technologically corrupted future. May we enjoy our last days of freedom, before the inevitable Robot war and human enslavement.

Or, this could just be made to help people missing limbs......

[Harlo @ Jul 6th 2007 4:20PM]

Yousella a robotic arm I buya one.

[Andrew @ Jul 6th 2007 7:19PM]

This would make for an awesome prop in the next Robert Rodriguez film.

[Tom Gabriele @ Jul 6th 2007 10:42PM]

it looks more like it was inspired by a human arm

[Steve @ Jul 8th 2007 8:38PM]

I have that exact wooden artist's hand. I guess they hadn't figured that part of the equation yet so they taped it to the arm.