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1h ago

Elephant Trunk Whiskers Use Stiffness Gradients to Encode Touch, Study Finds

A Science study reveals a porous, blade-like design that maps contact along each whisker, pointing to low-compute tactile sensors for robots.

Image
Asian elephants, stand in their pen at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk City, Florida September 30, 2015. REUTERS/Scott Audette/File Photo
A newborn Asian elephant is helped by his mother Farina (R) to stand up at Pairi Daiza wildlife park, a zoo and botanical garden in Brugelette, Belgium, May 25, 2015. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
An Asian elephant dries off with some sand in his enclosure at the zoo in Karlsruhe July 7, 2011. REUTERS/Alex Domanski/File Photo

Overview

  • Researchers found a base-to-tip transition from rigid roots to soft, rubber-like tips that helps elephants localize touch along each whisker.
  • Micro-CT and microscopy showed flattened, blade-shaped whiskers with hollow bases and long internal channels that cut weight and resist impacts.
  • The team validated the sensing role with a 3D-printed whisker wand and computational models that reproduced location-specific contact cues.
  • Domestic cat whiskers exhibited a similar stiffness gradient, unlike the uniformly stiff, solid whiskers documented in rats and mice.
  • The peer-reviewed findings, published in Science, highlight a durable system of roughly 1,000 non-regenerating trunk whiskers and offer a template for low-cost tactile sensors in robotics.