Lucia Beccai, a soft robotics expert at the Italian Institute of Technology, was inspired by elephants’ trunks while watching a documentary. Impressed by the trunks’ ability to handle tasks ranging from picking a leaf to moving logs, she envisioned robots that emulate these capabilities. This would transform robotic object handling, useful in domestic tasks and search and rescue operations.
“The elephant trunk is really attractive because it’s very dexterous and sensitive,” said Beccai. “It is a sensory organ that is large‑scale, boneless, but extremely versatile. Today, its performance is unmatched in robotics.”
This insight led to PROBOSCIS, a five-year EU-backed project that united biologists, engineers, and material scientists to unravel the trunk’s mechanics. The aim was to create a universal robotic hand capable of adapting to various object shapes and textures without hardware alterations.
Trunks: one continuous structure
Current robots have distinct arms and grippers with limitations. They lack “whole‑body manipulation,” which elephants achieve with continuous trunks. Their trunks, muscular hydrostats similar to octopus tentacles or human tongues, contain over 100,000 muscles and no bones, enabling flexible movement as a unified structure. They can lift nearly 300 kilograms and have two finger-like tips for finesse.
Simple moves, complex results
Evolutionary biologist Michel Milinkovitch from the University of Geneva used filmmaking techniques to analyze trunk movements in elephants at a South African reserve. Reflective markers tracked trunk movements, revealing efficient systems. Simple behaviors combined allow complex tasks.
Milinkovitch found one movement particularly spectacular. When the elephants reached behind their heads – often to take a treat from a keeper – they did not just curl their trunk backwards.
Instead, they stiffened the top section, forming “pseudo‑joints” like a shoulder and elbow, with the lower section swinging backward to grab the treat.
“That was absolutely mind‑blowing, because nobody ever saw this before. They do it very fast,” Milinkovitch said. It showed that the trunk can form distinct sections separated by joints.
The team performed anatomical studies on trunks from deceased zoo elephants of both African and Asian types.
3D muscles
Beccai’s team translated Milinkovitch’s insights into robotics by focusing on the trunk tip. They used 3D printing to combine sensors and artificial muscles into a single body. Pneumatic, balloon-like actuators inflate and deflate, enabling programmed movements. A mesh-like lattice structure allows multi-directional deformation in the soft robot, printed from a single resin with embedded sensors for feedback.
The prototype exhibits movements like elongation, compression, and bending, and can handle both delicate and heavy objects. It marks progress towards a universal gripper for diverse tasks. The research concluded in April 2025, and while it remains in laboratories, it solves many current robotic arm design challenges.
Gentle control
Elephant trunks contain thousands of muscles, but the brain controls only a few synergies – muscle collaborations for movement, as discovered by Milinkovitch’s team. This insight helps design robots around synergies rather than individual actuators, reducing complexity and energy needs, allowing battery-powered devices.
Beccai envisions robots for soft fruit harvesting, domestic tasks, and gentle environmental applications. In search and rescue, a soft arm could maneuver through debris to locate people.
“My dream is to build a system in healthcare that can help, for example, a disabled or elderly person by lifting them,” Beccai said. Such a robot would be strong yet gentle and non-intimidating.
For Beccai, the goal was never just a better gripper. It was a robot that feels natural to be around – strong when it needs to be, gentle when it matters.
Research in this article was funded by the EU’s Horizon Programme. The views of the interviewees don’t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.
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