[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-83278-en":3,"doc-seo-83278-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},83278,13056703019662,"Evangeline","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253a8e92610077?_k=1778726343310543188",8,"Research & Report","Continuous and Large-Scale ELEANOR, the Soft Architected Arm Inspired by the Elephant Trunk","The elephant trunk is a highly dexterous manipulator, with performance that remains difficult for robotics to match. Building on prior continuum robots that emphasized modularity and smaller scales, this work models the Loxodonta africana proboscis to propose a biomimetic design prioritizing structural continuity and dynamic properties. The result is an 85 cm 3D-printed compliant continuum arm with volumetric tessellation and tendon-driven actuation, enabling elephant-like movements. Demonstrations focus on whole-body grasping across objects of varied shapes and dimensions, followed by a biology-versus-robot comparison.","Continuous and large-scale: ELEANOR, the soft architected arm  \ninspired by the elephant trunk  \nGiovanna A. Naselli 1†, Anderson B. Nardin 1†, Seonggun Joe 1,2†, Ryan Drinkwater3, Enrico Donato4, Diego Bianchi4, Egidio Falotico4, Michel C. Milinkovitch5 and Lucia Beccai 1 *  \n1 Soft BioRobotics Perception Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, GE, Italy  \n2 Department of Autonomous Systems Engineering, Korea Aerospace University, Seoul, South Korea  \n3 Photocentric Ltd., Peterborough PE1 5XN, United Kingdom  \n4 BRAIR lab, The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56025 Pontedera, Italy  \n5 Laboratory of Artificial and Natural Evolution, Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, 30, Quai Ernest-Ansermet, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland  \n†G.A.N., A.B.N. and S.J. contributed equally to this work  \n* Corresponding Author E-mail: lucia.beccai@iit.it  \nAbstract  \nThe elephant trunk is a dexterous and versatile manipulator whose performance is still unmatched in robotics. In previous works, modularity was prioritized and relatively small-scale continuum robots were built. We take the natural proboscis of the Loxodonta africana species as a model and propose a different design approach which favors structural continuity and dynamic properties that plausibly emulate those of the natural trunk, while conferring high adaptability to the environment and humans. Instead of targeting prescribed behaviors, we show that a biomimetic design based on the macroscopic properties of the natural system enables elephant-like movements and grasping. We build by 3D printing an 85 cm long, compliant, tapered, volumetrically tessellated continuum arm, which is combined with tendon-driven actuation mimicking the longitudinal and oblique muscles of the natural model. We demonstrate whole-body grasping of objects having different shapes and dimensions and discuss a comparison to the biological trunk highlighting aspects of both biology and robotics.  \nIntroduction  \nThe elephant trunk is a large-scale, boneless, extremely versatile organ. Besides serving physiological (e.g., breathing, smelling) and social (e.g., disciplining, offering comfort, communication) functions, it accomplishes a wide spectrum of mechanical tasks: elephants use it to manipulate a diversity of items (e.g., of different dimensions, shape, stiffness, quantity, physical state, etc.) to feed themselves and for self-defense, interacting with their conspecifics and with the environment (1, 2) . The fact that this organ does not include a skeleton allows for continuous deformations, as it holds for all the muscular hydrostats (3) . Its structure is notably complex: an arrangement of dozens of thousands of muscular fascicles (4), wrapped in a tough yet deformable skin, together with connective tissue (5) . Owing to its dexterity and versatility, it is a remarkable model for robotic grasping and manipulation, different from the human arm-hand system (6, 7) . Thus, it has inspired a variety of continuum and hyper-redundant arms, consisting of rigid components, soft parts, or both, and recurring to various actuation principles (e.g., tendon-driven, fluidic) . The lengths of these robots are in the range 30—85 cm, depending on their structure. About two decades ago, researchers built an ~85 cm long hyper-redundant robotic trunk, consisting of sixteen serially connected modules distributed among four independently actuated cable-driven sections (8–10) . This robot, teleoperated by a joystick, implemented large displacements to perform whole-body grasping with limited versatility. Since then, multiple robotic solutions have been proposed, like an arm incorporating flexible rods (11), a tendon-driven arm which performs grasping through deformation patterns based on spirals (12), robotic modules based on dielectric elastomers (13), slender arms based on shape-memory alloys (14), pneumatic actuators often interconnected by rigid components (15–18), and r","cbCaieGeWZUw7f35","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieGeWZUw7f35","pdf",1327924,1,29,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Background: elephant trunk versatility and mechanics\n## Prior trunk-inspired robotic approaches\n## Motivation for large-scale bioinspired design","[{\"question\":\"What design approach does the ELEANOR robot introduce compared with earlier trunk-inspired robots?\",\"answer\":\"ELEANOR favors structural continuity and dynamic properties that emulate the natural trunk, rather than prioritizing modularity and small-scale designs.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the soft continuum arm built and actuated in this work?\",\"answer\":\"The arm is 3D-printed to a length of 85 cm with a compliant, tapered, volumetrically tessellated structure, and it uses tendon-driven actuation to mimic longitudinal and oblique muscle behavior.\"},{\"question\":\"What task performance is demonstrated, and what comparison is discussed?\",\"answer\":\"The work demonstrates whole-body grasping of objects with different shapes and dimensions, then discusses a comparison between the biological trunk and the robotic system.\"}]",1784186453,73,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":27},"continuous-and-large-scale-eleanor-the-soft-architected-arm-inspired-by-the-elephant-trunk","",{"@graph":35,"@context":85},[36,53,68],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/continuous-and-large-scale-eleanor-the-soft-architected-arm-inspired-by-the-elephant-trunk/83278/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-17","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What design approach does the ELEANOR robot introduce compared with earlier trunk-inspired robots?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"ELEANOR favors structural continuity and dynamic properties that emulate the natural trunk, rather than prioritizing modularity and small-scale designs.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How is the soft continuum arm built and actuated in this work?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The arm is 3D-printed to a length of 85 cm with a compliant, tapered, volumetrically tessellated structure, and it uses tendon-driven actuation to mimic longitudinal and oblique muscle behavior.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What task performance is demonstrated, and what comparison is discussed?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The work demonstrates whole-body grasping of objects with different shapes and dimensions, then discusses a comparison between the biological trunk and the robotic 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