Design of thin McKibben muscle and multifilament structure

This study reports on the design and construction of a body support suit based on two novel concepts: muscle textile and shifting the balancing posture of the body. The muscle textile is an active textile composed of soft thin muscles that provides a large supporting force, and is flexible and lightweight. Shifting the balancing posture of the body involves changing its neutral posture while relaxing the muscles, making it easier to perform tasks in uncomfortable positions and simplifying the control system of the support suit. These two ideas are employed herein to design a flexible, light, comfortable, and simple support suit system. We then propose and test a soft suit intended to assist humans in tasks involving unnatural arm positions based on this design. The performed subjective experiments confirmed that the 2 kg soft suit attained a selfweight compensation of up to 120° forward, a reduction of 33% in the integrated electromyogram in the brachialis muscle, and a suppression of 5% of body sway.

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“…where P is applied pressure. The expression from Kagawa of a model for artificial muscles [12] is then given as:…”

Section: Behavior Of the Overlapping Muscle Textilementioning

confidence: 99%

Muscle textile to implement soft suit to shift balancing posture of the body

Abe

Koizumi

Nabae

et al. 2018

2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)

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“…McKibben actuators can be made very long with relative ease and Kurumaya et al bundled a group of thin, high aspect ratio McKibben actuators to be used as artificial muscles, demonstrating an array working together in place of a single actuator. The array achieves a greater system compliance while maintaining comparable composite strength to more traditional individual McKibben actuators of larger diameter . A different use of high aspect ratio features to incorporate compliance into a larger structure was explored by Zhou et al, who incorporated arrays of passive silicone pillars on the inner palm and finger surfaces of a soft robotic hand .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The array achieves a greater system compliance while maintaining comparable composite strength to more traditional individual McKibben actuators of larger diameter. [27] A different use of high aspect ratio features to incorporate compliance into a larger structure was explored by Zhou et al, who incorporated arrays of passive silicone pillars on the inner palm and finger surfaces of a soft robotic hand. [28] The effect of these pillars can be compared to the memory foam used by Galloway et al to minimize the (already low) stress concentration induced by soft grippers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanically Programmable Dip Molding of High Aspect Ratio Soft Actuator Arrays

Becker

Chen

Wood

2020

Adv Funct Materials

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This work presents multiple methods of creating high aspect ratio fluidic soft actuators that can be formed individually or in large arrays via dip coating. Within this methodology, four strategies are provided to mechanically program the motion of these actuators, including the use of fiber inclusions, gravity, surface tension, and electric fields. The modular nature of this dip coating fabrication technique is inexpensive, easy to modify, and scalable. These techniques are used to demonstrate the fabrication of soft actuators with aspect ratios up to 200:1 and integrated arrays of up to 256 actuators. Furthermore, these methods have the potential to achieve higher aspect ratios and larger array sizes. Operating pressure, curvature, and curling strength tests reveal the design space in which fabrication parameters can be selected to tune the input and output parameters of soft bending actuators. An individual bending actuator made with these methods weighs between 0.15 and 0.5 g, can hold up to 2 N, and can be designed to work in groups to increase curling strength with distributed contact forces. Arrays of these actuators may be useful in atypical grasping and manipulation tasks, fluid manipulation, and locomotion.

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“…However, the curvature and full actuation pressure of elastomer-based micro-actuators are limited by the thickness of the strain limiting layer [17]. Reinforcing soft actuators with a strain limiting fiber has Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering Nanofiber-reinforced soft fluidic micro-actuators N R Sinatra 1,2,4 , T Ranzani 1,2,3 , J J Vlassak 1 , K K Parker 1,2 and R J Wood 1,2 successfully bridged this capability gap for larger, centimeterscale pneumatic actuators [24][25][26][27]. Fibers are an effective reinforcement layer for fluidic actuators because: (1) their inherent anisotropy facilitates directional control of actuator bending and mechanical properties, and (2) their flexibility and porosity are compatible with existing soft lithography techniques.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanofiber-reinforced soft fluidic micro-actuators

Sinatra

Ranzani

Vlassak

et al. 2018

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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Soft pneumatic actuators are promising candidates for micro-manipulation and delicate gripping due to their wide range of motion and ease of fabrication. While existing elastomerbased devices have attracted attention due to their compliant structures, there is a need for materials that combine flexibility, controllable actuation, and robustness. This paper bridges this capability gap by introducing a novel fabrication strategy for nanofiber-reinforced soft micro-actuators. The design and manufacturing of composite PDMS/nanofiber actuators using soft lithography and rotary jet spinning is described. We examine the impact of lamina design and fiber orientation on actuator curvature, mechanical properties, and pressurization range. Composite actuators displayed a 25.8% higher maximum pressure than pure PDMS devices. Further, the best nanofiber-reinforced laminates tested were 2.3 times tougher than the control PDMS material while maintaining comparable elongation. Finally, bending and bendingtwisting are demonstrated using pristine and laser-patterned nanofiber sheets, respectively.

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Design of thin McKibben muscle and multifilament structure

Cited by 118 publications

References 7 publications

Muscle textile to implement soft suit to shift balancing posture of the body

Muscle textile to implement soft suit to shift balancing posture of the body

Mechanically Programmable Dip Molding of High Aspect Ratio Soft Actuator Arrays

Nanofiber-reinforced soft fluidic micro-actuators

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