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 McKibben type, 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 Carbon fiber of the high intensity had been built into the silicon tube. In this report, the results of the examined the mechanical property of silicone rubber is reported, and the shrinking characteristics, response characteristics, and control performance as a pneumatic actuator are reported.
This paper is a study on a new type of a tendon system driven by a pneumatic balloon.
It consists of a tendon and a silicon tube. Both ends of the silicon tube are closed and the tube expands like a balloon
with the supply of air, which distends the silicon tube and pulls the tendon.
Two types of actuation systems are considered. One is a high power system while the other a long stroke type. These
two actuation systems have a difference in the mechanism of driving the tendon. In the high power system, the tendon is
wound around the balloon. On the other hand, for the long stroke type, one end of the tendon is clamped near the
balloon.
The states of expansion are examined for both the high power type and the long stroke type. A cover is introduced to
prevent the excessive expansion of the inflated balloon.
The basic characteristics of the two tendon systems are discussed. A comparison with a human muscle is also
presented.
The field of bio-engineering with the aim of developing new machines, which utilizes the motion and control of organisms as a model, is attracting attention. This technology is pursued by paying attention to various shapes and movements of organisms and autonomous system of organisms in acting in response to environment surrounding them, and by mechanically elucidating the locomotion mechanism, propulsive mechanism, nerve system and sensation system of these organisms. On the other hand, in the field of hydrodynamics, magnetic fluid that changes its apparent viscosity depending on magnetic field has been developed, and its utilization is under trial in various fields.
We paid attention to the peristaltic crawling of earthworm as transport function in place of wheels or ambulation, and have developed a micro robot running inside a tube using magnetic fluid. In this micro robot, a cell corresponding to earthworm's segment is composed of a natural rubber tube sealed with water-based magnetic fluid, and the cells are connected with elastic rods made of natural rubber.
The feature of this micro robot is that its structure is simply composed of, and it can be controlled with external wireless force, by providing it with moving magnetism from the outside. This paper presents the analytical result of the peristaltic crawling of an actual earthworm and the evaluation result of transport mechanism of a prototype micro robot moved by external magnetic field.
The robot in the future will be lightened and,in addition,the complex tasks will be done by consumption of less energy. To achieve this,the development of artificial muscle actuator as soft as human-being becomes indispensable.At present, artificial muscle actuator used is Mckinbben type, but 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 silicon tube.Our actuator is long-lived because it does not need the sleeve,and can give the aeolotropic characteristic of actuator by how to knit the fiber built into the tube.
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