Abstract
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information suppli ed by the inventors: “In nature, animals use tails for a variety of tasks includ ing stabilization, maneuvering, propulsion, and manipulation. Attracted by these amazing functionalities, researchers recently devoted significant effort toward s investigating the dynamical effects of tails on mobile platforms both theoreti cally and practically. Focusing on its functionality as a manipulator, a tail is essentially a flexible onboard serial manipulator the likes of which have been investigated and widely used for decades. Based on the system complexity, existi ng robotic tails range in complexity from the simplest and most commonly used pe ndulum tails to the most complex elastic continuum tails.
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