Development of artificial muscle actuator reinforced by Kevlar fiber

Abstract

The robot in the future will be lightened and, in addition, the complex tasks will be done by the consumption of less energy. To achieve this, the development of an artificial muscle actuator which is as soft as a human-being becomes indispensable. At present, the artificial muscle actuator used is the Mckinbben type/sup 1,2/, but the heat and mechanical loss of this actuator are large because of the friction caused by the expansion and contraction of the sleeve. Therefore, we developed the artificial muscle tube where the Kevlar fiber of the high intensity had been built into the silicone tube. Our actuator is long-lived because it does not need the sleeve, and can give the aeolotropic property of the actuator by how to knit the fiber built into the tube.