Researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) in the United States have developed a flexible robot inspired by an elephant's trunk, able to bend, grip objects and connect to other robots to form larger teams. The work is described in a paper published on November 11, 2026, in the scientific journal Nature Machine Intelligence.
How the tensegrity structure works
Instead of rigid blocks and traditional joints, the robot uses a principle called tensegrity: stiff rods held in place by a web of tensioned cables, with no fixed locks between the parts. The structure lets the body bend, collapse and change shape for the task at hand, like an elephant trunk, and was designed to overcome a limitation of conventional robots, whose shape stays fixed once they are built.
Claws at both ends link the robots
At both ends of the tube-like body there are gripping claws that can hold objects or attach to another robot. The claw connection avoids magnets, which can fail as connection points, and reduces the risk of misalignment when teams form. Each module can therefore work alone or join others into loops, chains and branches of different sizes. According to Associate Professor Jianguo Zhao, who led the project in CSU's Department of Mechanical Engineering, the robots are generalists, able to adapt their shape to the environment and to the needs of the mission.
From the lab to the field — and to space
The paper's co-first authors are doctoral student Mahmud Hasan Saikot and Sydney Spiegel, who designed the initial robot, along with Sudheera Akalanka Kariyawasam, Andrew Stefka and Josh Chrisler. The team tested the robots outside the lab, crossing natural landscapes, and has already shown two robots finding each other and connecting on their own. The systems still need a human pilot today, but the goal is mostly autonomous teams of tens or even hundreds of units, able to travel to a location and organize for a specific task. Envisioned uses include space exploration, supporting people in factories, and search-and-rescue operations. The topic connects to another recent space-robotics milestone covered by Geekiki: Caltech's ASTRA robot, which assembled a structure in orbit without astronauts.
Image credit: flexible robot inspired by an elephant's trunk. Credit: Colorado State University, Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, via Tech Xplore.
Sources: Tech Xplore; paper “Tensegrity continuum robots enable task-adaptive morphologies for cooperative behaviours”, Nature Machine Intelligence; preprint on arXiv; ScienMag.
Transparency: this article was prepared with the help of artificial intelligence, based on the scientific paper and online sources, including public posts on social media. Check the original sources to confirm the details.
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