Elephant Trunk Whiskers Exhibit Material Intelligence
17th February 2026
- Sense of touch despite thick elephant skin: Researchers have discovered that the hairs on elephants’ trunks are responsible for their extraordinary sense of touch.
- Special material properties: Elephant sensory hairs have a stiff base and a soft tip, which enables them to precisely feel objects and recognize where contact is made. These properties are similar to the whiskers of cats and differ from the completely stiff sensory hairs of rats and mice.
- Interdisciplinary collaboration: The research team at the Department of Haptic Intelligence at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems was joined by researchers from the fields of neuroscience and materials science.
- Applications in robotics: The findings will be used in the development of robot-assisted sensor technologies that mimic the stiffness gradient of elephant tactile hairs.