The strange tail of the seahorse and how it grips

The tail of a seahorse could provide the inspiration for armoured robots that have the ability to grasp, according to researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Using 3D printing to trying to mimic the structure of the seahorse’s tail — which unlike almost every other tail in nature is square in cross-section rather than round — led the team to investigate applications for the mechanism that could find applications in robotics and medicine.

“Almost all animal tails have circular or oval cross-sections – but not the seahorse’s. We wondered why,” said mechanical engineering Michael Porter, the lead investigator on the study. What they found came as a surprise. The square armour plates that make up the tail block each other as they move and can only slide against each other in one direction, while round plates can both slide and rotate. As a result, when crushed, the seahorse-tail structure can absorb more energy than a round-section structure before it fails, as the sections tend to retain their shae, while round ones are flattened to ovals.