3D-Printed Giraffe Neck Aims to Bring Flexibility, Impact-Resistance to Future Robotic Platforms

A team of researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a bio-inspired robot designed to replicate the functionality of a giraffe's neck — in the hope of using it as a development platform for new robotic mechanisms.

"The neck of a giraffe has excellent characteristics that can serve as a good alternative for designing a large robotic mechanism. For example, the neck can rapidly move when performing necking, a motion where the giraffes strike each other’s necks," the researchers write in the abstract to their paper, referring to the neck-based combat, which takes place between males as a way of asserting dominance. "Furthermore, the neck of a giraffe helps prevent impacts and adapts to the shape and hardness of the opponent’s neck during necking."

Colliding two robots together, by contrast, doesn't usually end well for either robot — so Atsuhiko Niikura and colleagues set about creating a half-scale robotic replica to see how many of a giraffe's attributes could be brought from the biological word to the robotic one.

"Roboticists and animal anatomists have combined efforts to develop a powerful and flexible long musculoskeletal robot based on the anatomy of a giraffe neck," the team explains. "The musculoskeletal robot prototype is actuated using thin McKibben pneumatic artificial muscles that bend easily."

The artificial muscles drive a skeleton created using a 3D printer, while a gravity compensation mechanism based on tensioned rubber mimics the nuchal ligaments found in the real deal. The resulting robot offers impressive flexibility, capable of a range of movements — including absorbing and safely adapting its shape when exposed to an external force.

The team's work has been published in the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters under closed-access terms; more information is available on IEEE Spectrum as part of the IEEE Journal Watch series.