Abstract
An artificial muscle, which has properties of compact, lightweight and flexible, avaliable as wearable rehabilitation device has been developed using shape memory alloy (SMA) wires. To this end, firstly its mechanical performance and its optimal geometric shape as the SMA artificial muscle are investigated experimentally and discussed using finite element analysis. It was found that the wave shaped SMA wire extends to 25〜30% strain that is nearly equivalent to that of human muscle. It was also shown that recovery force and maximum local strain were changed with geometric shape and combination of SMA wire. It is therefore believed that the designed SMA artificial muscle is applicable to wearable rehabilitation device.
