Building fully flexible tail (several joints) with minimal actuation required

[Squirrelrock]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

You may be envisioning the chain which has nearly +/- 180 dregrees of motion at each joint. Think of something that only has +/- 10 degrees. Monkees with prehensile tails can have motion that allows the tail to wrap around a limb, but to duplicate that with mechanical/electrical devices is a challenge. NASA has been working on this long and hard. A friend of mine was experimenting with "muscular motion" by stretching wire across a bladder. Inflate the bladder and the wires are pulled taut.

Is that something like the no-rod pneumatics thing discussed here? (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=39004)

grr, internet explorer doesn't work well with this interface....