紐製造技術による細径人工筋肉を用いた能動紐試作

抄録

Thin artificial muscle is a McKibben artificial muscle with 1.8 mm in outer diameter. It is a flexible and lightweight pneumatic actuator, and is expected to apply to mechanical system in medical, welfare and industrial fields. Some researchers reported that the bundle mechanisms of the artificial muscles. They generated high contraction displacement/force, however they were fabricated manually and it took much time to produce. In this study, we fabricated a string-shaped actuator called “Active string” by accumulating thin artificial muscles into a string shape using a string production process. By using the string production process, it is possible to manufacture the active string with high productivity and reproducibility. In this report, the structure and fabrication method of the active string are described, and its fundamental characteristics are shown. As a result, it was confirmed that the contraction rate of the active string increased 7.1 % when air pressure of 0.3 MPa is applied, compared to single thin artificial muscle.