Tag : Trunk

Atlanta (Georgia): According to a recent study from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an elephant's folded skin plays a significant part in stretching its trunk in addition to its muscles. The creature can easily grab fragile vegetation and break apart tree trunks thanks to the adaptability of its muscle and skin combination. The findings of the research were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by the same Georgia Tech team that authored a study last summer about how elephants use their trunk muscles to inhale food and water. The research, in collaboration with Zoo Atlanta, finds that an elephant's skin doesn't uniformly stretch. The top of the trunk is more flexible than the bottom, and the two sections begin to diverge when an elephant reaches more than 10%. When stretching for food or objects, the dorsal section of the trunk slides further forward. The findings could improve robotics, which today are typically built for either great strength or flexibility. Unlike an elephant's trunk, the machines can't do both. As an example, the study's authors point to soft robotics. Their fluid-filled cavities allow flexible movements but can easily break when forces are applied. The researchers say the elephant findings suggest that wrapping soft robotics with a skin-like structure could give the machines protection and strength while continuing to allow flexibility. "When people extend their tongue -- a muscle-filled, boneless tissue similar in composition to an elephant's trunk -- it stretches uniformly. We expected the same when we challenged an elephant to reach for food," said Andrew Schulz, the study's lead author and a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech's George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engin ...