A clumsy choice to pick up delicate or oddly shaped objects is made by robotic hand and claw-like grippers.
Researchers at Harvard's engineering school are trying to come up with a way to see what sticks with a bunch of tentacles.
The tentacle gripper looks like something out of a Cronenberg movie and it's on time for Halloween. The researchers found that the tentacles are effective.
Robert Wood, professor of engineering and applied sciences at SEAS, said in a press release that the new approach to robotic grasping replaces simple, traditional grippers that require complex control strategies with very simple control.
The rubber parts of the tentacles are not very strong. The slithy appendages can be used to grapple heavy objects. Even delicate cargo such as plants can be caught without risk.
There isn't much fancy science involved. They are limp, gangly tentacles that are thicker on one side so when you pump them full of air, they start to Curl up. All you have to do is release the pressure of inflation when you set an object down. The curling is random and isn't always going to stick, but with enough attempts it should stick.
The prototype of the tentacle gripper is a promising one. The technology can be used to retrieve fragile artifacts on the ocean floor, as well as moving fruits and vegetables in agricultural distribution.
Scientists turn dead spiders into robotic arachnids.
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