Multidirectional Artificial Muscles from Nylon

Seyed M Mirvakili; Ian W Hunter

doi:10.1002/adma.201604734

Multidirectional Artificial Muscles from Nylon

Adv Mater. 2017 Jan;29(4). doi: 10.1002/adma.201604734. Epub 2016 Nov 23.

Authors

Seyed M Mirvakili¹, Ian W Hunter¹

Affiliation

¹ BioInstrumentation Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.

PMID: 27878864
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201604734

Abstract

Multidirectional artificial muscles are made from highly oriented nylon filaments. Thanks to the low thermal conductivity of nylon and its anisotropic thermal expansion, bending occurs when a nylon beam is differentially heated. This heat can be generated via a Joule heating mechanism or high power laser pulses.

Keywords: artificial muscles; bending actuators; multidirectional actuator; nylon artificial muscles; thermal actuators.