Social Good Engineering Magazine: GineersNow Social Innovation GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 001 | Page 38

ROBOTICS
Elephant
Trunk
Robotic
Arms
Photo Source: Innorobo
Biomimetics is a damn exciting field.
Engineers in this field use nature as their
inspiration for systems and designs to
create awesome stuff. For example, they
used the elephant’s trunk to create a cool
robotic arm.

At first glance, the thingamajig
looks like a cross between a mechanical
claw and iron snake with a good measure
of tentacle horror thrown in. In fact, they
are reminiscent of the sweet robotic arms
used by the infamous Dr. Octopus, the
Spiderman villain. Of course, they are
calling it the Bionic Handling Assistant,
the blandest name possible for the cool
robot. But it’s cool anyway.

As it stands, elephant trunks
are possibly the coolest appendages in the
Animal Kingdom. So, making a robotic
arm based on that is a fantastic idea.
This robotic arm was made by Festo, a
German automation company.

What is even more fantastic
is that the arm acts and learns just like a
baby’s arm. The researcher will guide the
arm to perform certain actions. The robot
will learn and memorizes the movements
so as to repeat them whenever necessary.
This will enable the robot to fulfill func-
tions such as operating in tight quarters
and helping people in the medical or the
industrial sector. It can even be pro-
grammed to change a light bulb.
Pepper: the real
Star Wars C-3P0
humanoid robot
If you love C-3PO from the Star
Wars movie, then it’s not unlikely
for you to love Pepper too!

Pepper is the “emotional”
humanoid robot designed by the
French firm Aldebaran Robotics, a
subsidiary mobile carrier of Soft-
bank. Just like C-3Po, he is designed
to be a day-to-day companion
whose most significant function is
his ability to perceive emotions.

Pepper stands 4feet (1.2
meter) tall, with an attached tablet
on front and moves on wheels. He
can initiate small talk end even
give you advices. Pepper’s analyzer
enables him to identify human
emotions based on voices, facial
expressions and body movements.
Photo Source: Rude Baguette
38
The robot’s memory stores these
data and gradually memorizes per-
sonality traits as well as preferences
of the owner.

Pepper responses by
commenting on the mood of the
moment and expresses himself by
changing color and glittering his
eyes. He moves around and dance
while shaking his hands up. With
Pepper, there will never be a dull
moment!

You can even personalize
this robot by downloading software
applications and make if learn to
sing, dance or even speak in anoth-
er language. A specialized software
application is also programmed to
Pepper that makes you earn points