Frankly, I can think of few things I'd rather watch than a cool snake-arm robotics video. Well, speak of the devil.
(OC Robotics snake arm robotics video)
As far as I know, the first person to talk about the idea of having a mechanical snake arm, or mechanical tentacles, was in the classic 1898 story, War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells referred to the "glittering tentacles" that enabled the Martian Tripods to both walk and grasp objects:
Seen nearer, the Thing was incredibly strange, for it was no mere insensate machine driving on its way. Machine it was, with a ringing metallic pace, and long, flexible, glittering tentacles (one of which gripped a young pine tree) swinging and rattling about its strange body.
(Read more about H.G. Wells steel tentacle)
Humanoid Robots Tickle The Ivories
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...' - Herbert Goldstone, 1953.
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MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'