It's a game a lot of us played as children -- and maybe even later in life: unspooling measuring tape to see how far it would extend before bending. But to engineer, this game was an inspiration, ...

The gripper/forearm shows the most dramatic improvement from the previous versions, being simplified from 8 separate components to a single 3D printed part by using a compliant mechanism — that ...

Inspired by a childhood game of unspooling measuring tape, engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed ...

This allows the gripper to be used in various ways, including smoothly shifting between pinching and grasping without dropping a object. We love the relative simplicity of the mechanism ...

Steel measuring tape is an interesting material, in that it's rigid enough to hold its shape when extended, but flexible enough that it gives way under pressure. Scientists have taken advantage of ...

That’s because the tape is both robust and flexible; can be stored in a small container when retracted; and can reach far when extended. After a series of trial-and-error experiments, the engineers ...