Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : June 05, 2019 - June 08, 2019
In this paper, we propose a new method for improving the contracting abilities of pneumatic artificial muscle. Thin McKibben muscles, which are a flexible and lightweight actuator, have the contraction ratio equivalent to that of human muscles. However, the contraction ratio is sometimes insufficient in the actual use. Therefore, in our previous research, we achieved to improve the contraction ratio of thin McKibben muscles by braiding muscles again. The flexibility of thin McKibben muscles let us braid the muscles. In this research, we tried to braid the braided thin McKibben muscles again and improve the contraction ratio further. As a result, we achieved to increase the contraction ratio as follows: original single muscle 28%; once braiding muscle 37%; twice braiding muscle 41%. These improvements will help us to develop and improve soft robotic abilities.
