Robot Hand Design Based on a Chameleon's Tongue

Robotic hands need to be able to securely grasp and move objects with different shapes without breaking them. Festo, a German automation and controls company, has developed a new type of device to do so. The FlexShapeGripper has a silicone cap on the tip that can be sucked in or released. It's inspired by the amazing natural grappling capacity of a chameleon's tongue.


(Video Link)

This video shows the FlexShapeGripper in action, picking up objects of different sizes and shapes, including glasses, car keys, and ball bearings. Festo envisions it as useful for industrial robots that can be used for different tasks without requiring complex mechanical alterations.

-via Core77


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There are some neat variations of this that have been around for the last several years, using often bags filled with beans or sand. I think this is the first I've seen that didn't have some sort of solid filler in the grasping part.
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Its a 'Candle Winder'. At least that's what it was sold as, discreetly from underneath counter at the local dry goods and feed store. Those crazy victorians and their pre electric battery sex toys.

Don't Blink -Med Grey t shirt (Daughter just discovered Dr. Who)
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Remember the tabletop game from our youth, Battling Tops ™? Well, it turns out that the original wasn’t a game. The original was a Ninja weapon called a “Topei Shinjuru” (戦争ヨーヨー)(literally “War YoYo”). This is a seventeenth century (Norris Dynasty) Samurai Shinjuru launcher.

Big Minion Theory, Ladies Cut Large
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It's the original prototype Sonic Screwdriver; it was called the Sonic SCREWDRIVER because of the flathead at the end of this; those prongs are from an attempt to turn the screwdriver into a batarang-like grappling hook. The wire was the source of power for the screwdriver; the Doctors do need exercise occasionally.

And all of you copycats who are reading that will use this response, back off! This answer's mine!

LIFE T-Shirt, Black L
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A prototype Newton Meter - you know, the weight meters that you put an object on, and it drags it down a certain number of Newtons?
First, you take off the (removable) side sticking out, and put the thing you're measuring on a rope/string that is hooked in, replacing the part you took off to clamp it in place. Then, you drag the wheel like part to the zipper-end, and grab the zipper, and lift it up, so that gravity pulls down the wheel a certain number of grooves. That's the weight.

Pandemic T-Shirt, Black L
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