Hasta La Gadget!

An elephant never forgets. To hunt and destroy Sarah Connor.

Engineers have often molded their robotic creations on existent animal physiology. Nature has had millions of years in the R & D lab known as evolution to tweak its designs, so it makes sense for engineers to build upon this tried and tested groundwork.

One new example of Wild Kingdom-inspired robotics comes from German automated technology company Festo. They recently unveiled a robotic arm they’ve dubbed a “Bionic Handling Assistant.” The robotic arm is inspired by the natural world’s representatives to the
Republican party, the Elephant. The swaying cyber-trunk is a product of Festo’s inter-disciplinary Bionic Learning Network which was created with the specific aim of incorporating existent designs of the natural world into modern robotics.

The robot arm is able to move in a variety of directions and pick up small objects. The robotic trunk is also revolutionary in that it is complete free from any metal parts. Festo hopes the arm will find a role in medical technology, agriculture, and
“institutes of learning” (I don’t know if they thought that last one through).

So, anyway, yes, we now have robot elephants.

Videos of robo-Dumbos in action after the jump.

via SingularityHub