Muscle-fiber array inspired, multiple-mode, pneumatic artificial muscles through planar design and one-step rolling fabrication

Jiang Zou; Miao Feng; Ningyuan Ding; Peinan Yan; Haipeng Xu; Dezhi Yang; Nicholas X Fang; Guoying Gu; Xiangyang Zhu

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwab048

Muscle-fiber array inspired, multiple-mode, pneumatic artificial muscles through planar design and one-step rolling fabrication

Natl Sci Rev. 2021 Mar 24;8(10):nwab048. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwab048. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Authors

Jiang Zou¹, Miao Feng¹, Ningyuan Ding¹, Peinan Yan¹, Haipeng Xu¹, Dezhi Yang¹, Nicholas X Fang², Guoying Gu¹, Xiangyang Zhu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Abstract

Advances in development of artificial muscles have enabled creation of soft robots with biological dexterity and self-adaption in unstructured environments; however, production of scalable artificial muscles with multiple-mode actuations remains elusive. Inspired by muscle-fiber arrays in muscular hydrostats, we present a class of versatile artificial muscles called MAIPAMs (muscle-fiber array inspired pneumatic artificial muscles), capable of multiple-mode actuations (such as parallel elongation-bending-spiraling actuations, 10 parallel bending actuations and cascaded elongation-bending-spiraling actuations). Our MAIPAMs consist of active 3D elastomer-balloon arrays reinforced by a passive elastomer membrane, achieved through a planar design and one-step rolling fabrication approach. We introduce prototypical designs for the MAIPAMs and demonstrate their muscle-mimic structures and versatility, as well as their scalable ability to integrate flexible but non-stretchable layers for contraction and twisting actuation modes and compliant electrodes for self-sensing. We further demonstrate that this class of artificial muscles shows potential for versatile robotic applications, such as carrying a camera for recording videos, gripping or manipulating objects, and climbing a pipe-line.

Keywords: bio-inspired design; multiple-mode actuations; pneumatic artificial muscles; soft robotics.