Mixed phase activated artificial muscle

抄録

This article presents the mixed phase as the pressure medium of hydraulic artificial muscles, which has rarely been mentioned before. Then a novel mixed phase activated artificial muscle is designed. Through this method, the weight of artificial muscle can be reduced effectively compared with the traditional hydraulic artificial muscles. The artificial muscle shows the same advantages of the hydraulic artificial muscles, more than that, this artificial muscle has a good anti-bending and anti-extrusion capacity. Despite the actuation mechanism of the hydraulic artificial muscles, the characteristics of the mixed phase activated artificial muscles have not been widely studied. The muscle is tested of its anti-deformability under the uniform load and the concentrated load respectively. The characteristics of contraction and expansion are studied in different pressure conditions and the weight reduction of the pressure medium is analyzed. Moreover, the gravity model is established to adapt to any kind of pressure medium. At last the bending test of flexible arm which composed of three parallel artificial muscles is carried out. The bending capacity and grasping ability are analyzed. Furthermore, the experiment of the arm is conducted underwater.