Colorado State builds elephant-trunk robots that bend, grab, and link up with claws at both ends

The backstory: why so many robots get awkward in messy places

A factory arm is usually built from rigid segments and fixed joints. It is strong and precise, but its shape barely changes. In rubble, tight gaps, or next to irregular objects in space, that fixed body becomes a liability. Soft robots and continuous, trunk-like arms have been a popular answer. The hard part is staying flexible, still being able to apply force, and, ideally, combining into a larger system.

What they built

On November 11, Colorado State University described work from associate professor Jianguo Zhao's team, published in Nature Machine Intelligence. The robots use a design approach called tensegrity: stiff rods are held in place by a web of tensioned cables rather than locked rigidly together, a bit like a skeleton steadied by a net of strings. That lets them bend, collapse, and change shape as needed. They have no traditional joints, but a pair of gripping claws at both ends of the tube-like body can hold objects or attach to a partner.

Zhao said the physical structure of most robots is fixed, while this approach lets the systems adapt by collapsing, stretching, or grasping as the environment and the task change. Each robot also works like a building block: it can operate alone or connect with others to form larger, more capable shapes. The claw-to-claw connection was chosen to avoid magnets, which can fail as attachment points. The robots can bend around to lift objects of different sizes, he said, or move over difficult terrain the way a snake would, and the claws reduce misalignment when they link, making it easier to form loops, chains, and branches.

Co-first author and doctoral student Mahmud Hasan Saikot said the team went through several designs. One challenge was finding motors small enough for the movements, yet powerful and reliable over long periods. The team also took the robots into the field to see how they crossed uneven ground.

They are not ready to run a rescue on their own

Zhao described the robots as generalists that could one day help with search and rescue, support people in manufacturing, or join space exploration. Those are goals, not missions already underway. Saikot said the systems still need to be piloted by a human. The team has, however, already shown that two robots can find each other and connect on their own. Next come higher speeds and a better ability to work together with less supervision. He can imagine mostly autonomous teams of tens or even hundreds, linked by the claws, traveling to a site and then deploying for a task.

What it could mean for you

If robots that can act as both an arm and a building block later become faster and more independent, disaster crews might send in a group that can thread through gaps and assemble into a bridge or a gripper, and factories might gain more flexible helper arms. That point is still ahead. What is confirmed now is that trunk-like robots in the lab can already bend, grasp, and latch onto one another with claws, and that two of them can find each other and connect. There is a clear gap between a human-piloted prototype and a swarm that does the work itself.

Original source published: Colorado State University College of Engineering, Nov 11, 2026, 23:00:06 Beijing time (UTC+8)