Fabrication and modeling of temperature-controllable artificial muscle actuator

A Modeling of Twisted and Coiled Polymer Artificial Muscles Based on Elastic Rod Theory

“…Through single-helix approximation method, it is proved that torsional stroke depends on twist number inserted into the fiber and is independent of fiber diameter [26]. While other studies report that the performance of TCP muscles can also be affected by other factors such as annealing stress, arrangement of fibers, turns per a length, weight per a fiber, and temperature of heat treatment [27][28][29][30]. The influence of twisting speed and plies number on the performance of TCP was discussed thoroughly [31].…”

Polymer fiber actuators: manufacturing, modeling and application on an antagonistic joint

“…These characteristics are similar to those of biological muscles: high amplitude of action, high power density, and little hysteresis. Therefore, polyethylene and nylon fibers have been used to produce artificial muscles, which have been the target of several studies in recent years (de Almeida et al, 2018), (Sutton et al, 2016), (Cho et al, 2016b), (Arakawa et al, 2016), (Yip and Niemeyer, 2017). The characteristics of a CPA make it an inexpensive, and perhaps even more efficient alternative for actuators, which would rather employ shape memory alloys (SMA) or carbon nanotubes (CNT) (Haines et al, 2014).…”

“…This work was supported by PPgEE/UFCG and CAPES. Cho et al (2016b), Cho et al (2016a), Sutton et al (2016), and Yip and Niemeyer (2017) have performed Joule heating by applying electrical current to the terminals of a silver coated CPA; whereas Semochkin (2016), Arakawa et al (2016), and de Almeida et al (2018) by applying electrical current to the terminals of a conductor wire wrapped around the CPA.…”

“…Thermomechanical models developed for this type of actuator comprise a mass-spring-damper model with a temperature-proportional component, as proposed by de Almeida et al (2018), and experimental models obtained by means of curve fitting or identification methods, as proposed by Cho et al (2016b), and Arakawa et al (2016), respectively. The models considered by de Almeida et al (2018) and Arakawa et al (2016) are linear whereas the model found by Cho et al (2016b) is nonlinear.…”

“…After actuation, if the CPA relaxation relies only on the conduction and convection cooling at room temperature, its response is slow. Cooling systems based on ventilation and water flow may reduce the relaxation time constant, however, according to Cho et al (2016b), such additional apparatus increases the system weight and the model complexity. An alternative solution is the use of pairs of antagonistic actuators.…”