  Spider monkeys (genus Ateles) have a prehensile tail that functions as a
flexible, multipurpose fifth limb, enabling them to navigate complex terrains,
grasp objects of various sizes, and swing between supports. Inspired by the
spider monkey tail, we present a life size hybrid soft-rigid continuum robot
designed to imitate the function of the tail. Our planar design has a rigid
skeleton with soft elements at its joints that achieve decreasing stiffness
along its length. Five manually-operated wires along this central structure
control the motion of the tail to form a variety of possible shapes in the 2D
plane. Our design also includes a skin-like silicone and fabric tail pad that
moves with the tail's tip and assists with object grasping. We quantify the
force required to pull various objects out of the robot's grasp and demonstrate
that this force increases with the object diameter and the number of edges in a
polygonal object. We demonstrate the robot's ability to grasp, move, and
release objects of various diameters, as well as to navigate around obstacles,
and to retrieve an object after passing under a low passageway.
