Flexible Micro Robot Arm
Most of the researches in the field of robotics focus on industrial robots, as for which people tend to pursue more precise and controllable repetitive movements, but pay little attention to the flexibility and size of robots. As a result, those flexible mechanical arms and micro-robots that can change shapes at will in science fiction movies have merely stalled at the most basic stage of research and development so far.
If you want the robot to work, you need a driver that can generate force. This kind of actuator, like muscle of human or animal, can output controllable force and make displacement. At the same time, the actuator should be soft and deformable like a muscle. This kind of actuator is called "flexible actuator", which is also called artificial muscle or bionic muscle. It can contract under the action of external stimuli (such as electric current, heat, chemistry, magnetic field, etc.), thus simulating the driving characteristics of animal muscles.
Twisted-and-Coiled Actuator is a new type of artificial muscle made by twisting polymer fibers (nylon material such as sewing thread and fishing line) and spirally winding them. It is named after its spiral shape, and we will call it "spiral actuator" for short. Screw driver has high energy density, with its output force under the same mass one hundred times that of animal muscle at lower cost. Nowadays, the screw driver is generally made of conductive nylon sewing thread. It can directly contract and lift a heavy object after applying current (about 1A), or stretch and jack an object.
If you want the robot to work, you need a driver that can generate force. This kind of actuator, like muscle of human or animal, can output controllable force and make displacement. At the same time, the actuator should be soft and deformable like a muscle. This kind of actuator is called "flexible actuator", which is also called artificial muscle or bionic muscle. It can contract under the action of external stimuli (such as electric current, heat, chemistry, magnetic field, etc.), thus simulating the driving characteristics of animal muscles.
Twisted-and-Coiled Actuator is a new type of artificial muscle made by twisting polymer fibers (nylon material such as sewing thread and fishing line) and spirally winding them. It is named after its spiral shape, and we will call it "spiral actuator" for short. Screw driver has high energy density, with its output force under the same mass one hundred times that of animal muscle at lower cost. Nowadays, the screw driver is generally made of conductive nylon sewing thread. It can directly contract and lift a heavy object after applying current (about 1A), or stretch and jack an object.