Arque, An Anthropomorphic Robotic Tail That Extends Human Balance, Reach and Agility

Researchers in the Keio University Graduate School of Media Design program in Tokyo have created the Arque, an anthropomorphic robotic tail with vertebrae that uses biomimicry to extend the innate capabilities of the human body. The tail operates much in the same way of that on a dog or cat, offering extra balance, reach and agility.

The internal structure of the tail is driven by four pneumatic artificial muscles providing the actuation mechanism for the tail tip. Here we highlight potential applications for using such prosthetic tail as an extension of human body to provide active momentum alteration in balancing situations, or as a device to alter body momentum for full-body haptic feedback scenarios.

via Technabob