Analysis and experiments with an elephant's trunk robot.
The area of tentacle and trunk type biological manipulation is not new, but there has been little progress in the development and application of a physical device to simulate these types of manipulation. Our research in this area is based on using an 'elephant trunk' robot. In this paper, we review the construction of the robot and how it compares to biological manipulators. We then apply our previously designed kinematic model to describe the kinematics of the robot. We finish by providing some examples of motion planning and intelligent manipulation using the robot.
Clemson Univ, Dept Elect & Comp Engn; Clemson, SC 29634, USA. mhannan@ces.clemson.edu
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Hannan
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Walker
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004606:Elephants; D004867:Equipment Design; D007596:Joints; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D018583:Pliability; D012371:Robotics; D013131:Spine