Pneumatic Artificial Muscles Based on Biomechanical Characteristics of Human Muscles

Abstract

This article reports the pneumatic artificial muscles based on biomechanical characteristics of human muscles. A wearable device and a rehabilitation robot that assist a human muscle should have characteristics similar to those of human muscle. In addition, since the wearable device and the rehabilitation robot should be light, an actuator with a high power to weight ratio is needed. At present, the McKibben type is widely used as an artificial muscle, but in fact its physical model is highly nonlinear. Therefore, an artificial muscle actuator has been developed in which high-strength carbon fibres have been built into the silicone tube. However, its contraction rate is smaller than the actual biological muscles. On the other hand, if an artificial muscle that contracts axially is installed in a robot as compactly as the robot hand, big installing space is required. Therefore, an artificial muscle with a high contraction rate and a tendon-driven system as a compact actuator were developed, respectively. In this study, we report on the basic structure and basic characteristics of two types of actuators.

Mechanical equilibrium model of rubberless artificial muscle and application to position control of antagonistic drive system

“…Several artificial muscles that differ from McKibben artificial muscles have been proposed (Daerden and Lefeber, 2001a, b; Lee and Shimoyama, 1999; Saga et al , 2006). Saga et al (2006) proposed an artificial muscle reinforced by straight fibers.…”

“…Several artificial muscles that differ from McKibben artificial muscles have been proposed (Daerden and Lefeber, 2001a, b; Lee and Shimoyama, 1999; Saga et al , 2006). Saga et al (2006) proposed an artificial muscle reinforced by straight fibers. In their research, a mechanical equilibrium model of this artificial muscle was derived considering the artificial muscle shape when it contracts and considering an elastic property (Saga et al , 2007).…”

Stochastic recruitment limited control of shape memory alloy based on Markov chain model

“…Although the material changes rapidly in the molecular structure, it has a slow response from the macro view of the material. As the artificial muscle actuator has many characteristics similar to biological muscle control, many scholars expect to find inspiration for the control of artificial muscle actuator from the control of biological muscle (Saga et al, 2006; Schrag et al, 2005). It is of great value to study the control of artificial muscle actuator from the perspective of bionic control to improve the reliability and stability of the system.…”

Development and control of a multifingered robotic hand using a pneumatic tendon-driven actuator

“…Therefore, these robot hands offer insufficient safety and affinity for a human. However, some rubber artificial muscles (Nakamura et al, 2003;Saga et al, 2006b;Schulte, 1961) have been developed as actuators for robots with high safety and affinity. Some robot hands have been produced with a soft construction: one system uses McKibben artificial muscles (Festo Co., Ltd., http://www.festo.com/cms/en-gb_gb/ 5001.htm; Shadow Co., Ltd., http://www.shadow.…”