Artificial muscle

Artificial muscles, also known as muscle-like actuators, are materials or devices that mimic natural muscle and can change their stiffness, reversibly contract, expand, or rotate within one component due to an external stimulus (such as voltage, current, pressure or temperature).[1] The three basic actuation responses—contraction, expansion, and rotation—can be combined within a single component to produce other types of motions (e.g. bending, by contracting one side of the material while expanding the other side). Conventional motors and pneumatic linear or rotary actuators do not qualify as artificial muscles, because there is more than one component involved in the actuation.

Owing to their high flexibility, versatility and power-to-weight ratio compared with traditional rigid actuators, artificial muscles have the potential to be a highly disruptive emerging technology. Though currently in limited use, the technology may have wide future applications in industry, medicine, robotics and many other fields.[2][3][4]

  1. ^ Mirvakili, Seyed M. (2013). Niobium Nanowire Yarns and Their Application as Artificial Muscle (M.A.Sc). University of British Columbia. hdl:2429/44257.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference MuscleApps was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Apps2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Mirvakili, S.; et al. (2018). "Artificial Muscles: Mechanisms, Applications, and Challenges". Advanced Materials. 30 (6): 1704407. Bibcode:2018AdM....3004407M. doi:10.1002/adma.201704407. PMID 29250838. S2CID 205283625.