Jamming Grippers Combine to Form Robotic Elephant Trunk – IEEE Spectrum.

“Jamming” has to be one of the coolest new actuation techniques we’ve seen in the last couple years, and we’ve recently covered a bunch of fascinating implementations of it, including walking robots and grippers that can throw stuff. MIT may have just topped everyone by developing a robotic elephant trunk that’s strong, flexible, and, since it’s made mostly out of coffee grounds, absolutely dirt cheap.

The jamming technique was developed jointly at Cornell University, University of Chicago, and iRobot back in late 2010.