Robotic elephant trunk can learn new tasks on its own

A robotic elephant trunk that uses artificial intelligence to mimic some aspects of brains could lead to snake-like machines that can roam and adapt to new tasks. Sebastian Otte at the University of Tubingen in Germany and his colleagues created a 3D-printed robot trunk from segments that each include several motors driving gears that tilt up to 40 degrees in two axes. The trunk can bend, but also elongate or shorten. The team created a trunk with 10 segments, but they say the length could be doubled with more powerful motors.