A future where people have prehensile tails like the classic “Spider-Man” villain “Scorpion” is one step closer to reality.
Japanese scientists have created a strap-on robotic tail equipped with sensors, which they claim could provide stability and help people with balance problems.
Arque, the responsive, high-tech appendage, is equipped with sensors and even artificial muscles which can response and adjust to the wearer’s movements.
Researchers from Keio University Graduate School of Media Design in Yokohama, Japan initially began developing the robotic tail by studying cats and tigers before they settled on modeling its movements on seahorses.
The reason they chose to model their artificial tails on the aquatic creatures was because their tails were larger and heavier, which can provide the force and momentum needed to affect its centre of gravity.
And in the case of humans, a tail would need to weigh five per cent of a person’s body. So Japanese scientists have designed their model to be adjustable in weight based on the wearer.
