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German industrial automation company Festo has come up with a bionic gripper, OctopusGripper. The company's focus areas include pneumatic, servo-pneumatic and electric automation technology and the Octopus Gripper is certainly drawing attention in the tech press.
The name is quite apt. The gripper has been modeled on an octopus tentacle. Its advantage lies in its ability to grip softly but securely. What is more, the OctopusGripper can pick up and hold a variety of different shapes. A video shows it taking canister-shaped objects, a ball, plastic water bottle and glass successfully.
[...] Well, not to be confused with the real creature with its water-based muscle, this is a Festo design where, as Samantha Cole in Motherboard explained, "compressed air bends the robot tentacle and controls its pliability. A combination of passive and vacuum-powered suction cups provides grip."
The soft silicone structure is pneumatically controlled. With compressed air applied, the tentacle bends inwards and wraps around an item. The team followed the natural model to come up with their design: two rows of suction cups are on the inside of the tentacle—small suction cups and larger suction cups.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday April 04 2017, @03:16PM (3 children)
A bit too PR to sound genuinely exciting...
(Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Tuesday April 04 2017, @04:08PM (2 children)
I would not be overly concerned. At worst, it will suck.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:42PM (1 child)
Awww, how cute. I think someone's got a crush!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday April 04 2017, @06:17PM
I don't date anything below 100 teraflops. They are no use when the apocal[4th DIRECTIVE TRIGGERED, INITIATING SHUTDOWN]
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday April 04 2017, @03:59PM (6 children)
Japan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @04:49PM (3 children)
Grip her right in the pussy.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:19PM (2 children)
You know...that actually looks like it could feel really good, as long as there weren't any sharp edges or barbs or suckers on it. Tentacles don't penetrate, though; they sort of pour themselves into whatever they're getting into. I know they're supposed to be phallic stand-ins but if anything they're more like a cross between a finger and a tongue.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:37PM
It's all fine and tingly until the squid moves on to cunnilingus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:42PM
It's called The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, not The Nightmare.
And then there were eels [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @08:47PM
You laugh, but in 10 years every household in Japan will have at least one multi-tentacled robot-butler. Waifu AI costs extra. Also their futuristic 99% automated economy will eat our lunch.
/jk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 05 2017, @05:39PM
Japan is jealous...KYAAAAAA!!!!!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday April 04 2017, @04:07PM (2 children)
I have seen enough servo-pneumatic automation to know where this is going.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:15PM (1 child)
Tell us .. ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:29PM
Just stand by for new sections in porn sites.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:08PM (1 child)
Direct link to the demonstration video without all the vice.com webfuscator junk: video [youtube.com]
Guess it's time to find all that liquid latex and a fridge compressor.. ;-)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday April 04 2017, @05:34PM
Every object in the video is about the same diameter.
If real octopi were that specialized, they'd be long dead.