Design and optimization of multi-class series-parallel linear electromagnetic array artificial muscle

Biomed Mater Eng. 2014;24(1):549-55. doi: 10.3233/BME-130841.

Abstract

Skeletal muscle exhibiting complex and excellent precision has evolved for millions of years. Skeletal muscle has better performance and simpler structure compared with existing driving modes. Artificial muscle may be designed by analyzing and imitating properties and structure of skeletal muscle based on bionics, which has been focused on by bionic researchers, and a structure mode of linear electromagnetic array artificial muscle has been designed in this paper. Half sarcomere is the minimum unit of artificial muscle and electromagnetic model has been built. The structural parameters of artificial half sarcomere actuator were optimized to achieve better movement performance. Experimental results show that artificial half sarcomere actuator possesses great motion performance such as high response speed, great acceleration, small weight and size, robustness, etc., which presents a promising application prospect of artificial half sarcomere actuator.

Keywords: Artificial muscle; electromagnetic actuator; finite element; multi-object optimization; series-parallel array.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acceleration
  • Biomimetic Materials
  • Bionics
  • Computer Simulation
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Electromagnetic Radiation*
  • Equipment Design
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Humans
  • Ligaments
  • Muscle Contraction / physiology*
  • Muscle, Skeletal / physiology*
  • Prosthesis Design
  • Robotics
  • Sarcomeres / physiology*