EU-funded researchers have developed a soft robot that moves like an elephant’s trunk – precise enough to pick fresh fruit, yet powerful enough to help lift a patient. Lucia Beccai, an expert in soft robotics at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, had an idea while watching a documentary about elephants. She was amazed by the versatility of their trunks, which can delicately remove a single leaf from a tree and then shift massive logs. That versatility was missing from today’s robots. But what if researchers could emulate the anatomy and function of an elephant trunk? It could revolutionise how robots handle objects, with applications from helping around the house to searching for survivors in rubble. “The elephant trunk is really attractive because it’s very dexterous and sensitive,” said Beccai. “It is a sensory organ that is large‑scale, boneless, but extremely versatile. Today, its performance is unmatched in robotics.” That observation became the seed for PROBOSCIS, a five‑year EU‑funded research initiative that brought together biologists, engineers and materials scientists to decode the mechanics of …