What does inspire you? Is it art and music, physics and mathematics, family and friends, or just something more shallow like money and idleness? Do not worry, I’m not here to judge you, and I hope you are not getting in shock and start assessing experts when I tell you that what is inspiring them in technological novelty is the striking kinship between animals and humans.

(7D Technology: Can it put an end to zoo animals’ captivity?) 

Sims Were Just The Roots

Thereupon, have you ever thought that Sims are not the only animal creatures alike to the humankind? While sims are probably the closest living beings to humans in a full array, there are lots of creatures with remarkable resembling human skills or even body structures that they are turning even Robotics upside down.

In fact, did you know that elephants and humans are the only two species that share the chins as a unique biological connection? Actually, there has even been the discussion that humans and elephants appear to have evolved from similar ancestors due to the similar characteristics and anatomical likenesses we share.

No matter whether if you go with the theory that we have a chin so that we may fold towels with ease, this may represent another of those mystical biological evolution wonders which could breed something totally game changer in the tech environment: soft robotics.

The Strange Way of Robots and His New Cousins, Soft Robotics

So animals and humans flexibility are bringing onto the robot family a new foreign species called the soft robotics.

Up to now, when we speak about robots, after decades of droids, Cylons, and terminators, we picture them as something metal and rigid, no matter the shape. Factual, I’m pretty sure that if I ask you to start dancing like a robot, you probably will start moving your arms in a stiff way like a weird karateist, isn’t it?

Clearly, scientists did realize that some time ago, and started working on introducing human plus animal inspired floppy and mobility into our automatic smart friends, which skilled that way they would baptize as soft robotics.

Elasticity In a Flashback

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Truth be told, there have been years of hard work, searching for the idea of giving robots the stretchability, and among the most successful ideas that were contributing actively, we found the case of the Robotic Elephant Trunk Arm that may hang with humans with the graceful and flexibility of the real animal, from Festo, in Germany.

It is a Bionic Handling Assistant, the free-moving “third-hand system,” as the enterprise loves to refer to it, which has plenty of uses in situations that require support from machines like medical technology, rehabilitation, and as an aid for the handicapped, as well as in agriculture, private homes and educational institutes.

The Path For a Playfulness Robotic Character

Last year, it was the turn of a group of researchers from the Harvard University, which not only found the suppleness into their sly creation but the autonomy of wires into an untethered, no electronics 3D printed soft robotics.

The Octobot, a pneumatic-based, powered by a chemical reaction controlled by microfluidics (gas under pressure), represents an evidence of the suchlike between us all the living beings on earth that could help revolutionize how humans interact with machines and enhance for a new positive impact and interaction with the environment.

What is next? We have to keep tuned, but it seems that shortly we could be in the presence of what in a fiction world we could call extraterrestrial.