Jamming Gripper + Elephant Trunk = Awesome 
still in the early stages of development, this concept is trying to combine one of the more dexterous animal manipulators with the jamming technology we have seen popularized through the coffee ground filled balloon grippers.
The arm is made up of a bunch of different jamming segments stuck together at the ends, with separate vacuum valves to each segment and a set of four control cables spaced at 90 degree intervals around the outside of the entire thing. As the control cables pull on the arm, the segments smoothly flex, but by jamming selected segments and turning them rigid
The following video shows the beginnings of what seems like a very promising concept.
+50
