This is EEMMMa: a robotic limb with a long-reach steel tentacle that can extend and bend. It can be used as a grappling hook for climbing or change shape to bend around obstacles. This approach can be used to retrieve samples from hard to reach areas.
This robotic limb enables mobile robots to move safely through highly unstructured terrain. As the researchers explain, EEMMMa-1 prototype successfully climbed ladders and shelves in 1.5 bodylengths per second. It can also bend up to 100 degrees.
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