Artificial Muscles

ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES

What is it??

Artificial Muscle is a generic term used for materials or devices that can reversibly contract, expand, or rotate within one component due to an external stimulus (such as voltage, current, pressure or temperature). The three basic actuation responses – contraction, expansion, and rotation – can be combined together within a single component to produce other types of motions (e.g. bending, by contracting one side of the material while expanding the other side).

Why is it important?

1.. Artificial muscle technologies have wide potential applications in biomimetic machines, including        robots, industrial actuators and powered exoskeletons.

2. Artificial muscles offer a combination of light weight, low power requirements, resilience and agility for locomotion and manipulation.

3. Future EAP devices will have applications in aerospace, automotive industry, medicine, robotics, articulation mechanisms, entertainment, animation, toys, clothing, haptic and tactile interfaces, noise control, transducers, power generators, and smart structures.