ArticleiScience2023
Sensorized objects used to quantitatively study distal grasping in the African elephant.
Article in iScience, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Soft Mechanical Inductive Sensors: Principles, Design, and Applications.Micromachines · 2026Review
- The Elephant Trunk Skin Inspires a Highly Sensitive and Deformable, Yet Robust, Armor Skin.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- MELEGROS: Monolithic Elephant-Inspired Gripper with Optical Sensors.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Effect of the habitat and tusks on trunk grasping techniques in African savannah elephants.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Nature evolved many ways to grasp objects without using hands: elephants, octopuses, and monkeys use highly dexterous appendices. From a roboticist's perspective, the elephant trunk is a fascinating manipulator, which strategies can empower robots' interaction capabilities. However, quantifying prehensile forces in such large animals in a safe, ethical, and reproducible manner is challenging. We developed two sensorized objects to investigate the grasping of an adult African elephant with deliberately occluded vision. A cylinder and a handle provided a distributed force (80 and 6 taxels) and inertial measurements in real-time, resisting dirt and shocks. The animal curled the distal portion of the trunk to grasp the tools. Using force and contact area data of the cylinder revealed the animal's ability to finely modulate pressure. The handle data provided insights into the energy-efficient behavior of the animal, with no significant grasping force changes despite variations imposed on both weight (5-15 kg) and initial position of the object.
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Registered trials
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