Bioinspired actuators with intrinsic muscle-like mechanical properties

Chunbao Liu; Yingjie Wang; Zhihui Qian; Kunyang Wang; Fangzhou Zhao; Peng Ding; Daojie Xu; Guowu Wei; Luquan Ren; Lei Ren

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.103023

Bioinspired actuators with intrinsic muscle-like mechanical properties

iScience. 2021 Aug 24;24(9):103023. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103023. eCollection 2021 Sep 24.

Authors

Chunbao Liu^{1

2}, Yingjie Wang^{1

2}, Zhihui Qian¹, Kunyang Wang¹, Fangzhou Zhao^{1

2}, Peng Ding^{1

2}, Daojie Xu^{1

2}, Guowu Wei³, Luquan Ren¹, Lei Ren^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China.
² School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China.
³ School of Computing, Science and Engineering, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK.
⁴ Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.

Abstract

Humans and animals can achieve agile and efficient movements because the muscle can operate in different modes depending on its intrinsic mechanical properties. For bioinspired robotics and prosthetics, it is highly desirable to have artificial actuators with muscle-like properties. However, it still remains a challenge to realize both intrinsic muscle-like force-velocity and force-length properties in one single actuator simultaneously. This study presents a bioinspired soft actuator, named HimiSK (highly imitating skeletal muscle), designed by spatially arranging a set of synergistically contractile units in a flexible matrix similar to skeletal musculature. We have demonstrated that the actuator presents both intrinsic force-velocity and force-length characteristics that are very close to biological muscle with inherent self-stability and robustness in response to external perturbations. These outstanding properties result from the bioinspired architecture and the adaptive morphing of the flexible matrix material, which adapts automatically to mechanically diverse tasks without reliance on sensors and controllers.

Keywords: Biomechanical engineering; Biotechnology; Materials mechanics; Mechanical systems.