Considerations on Designing Artificial Muscle Working at High Pressure

2012 ◽  
Vol 268-270 ◽  
pp. 1457-1463
Author(s):  
Li Chao Wang ◽  
Xiao Dong Wang

Artificial muscle is a new style of actuator with novel working principle, which owns the advantages of compact structure, high power-to-weight ratio, compliance and easy application. Pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) is usually used in robotics, medical auxiliaries and other small force output occasions nowadays. However, it suffers problems of small power, hysteresis and poor repeatability. A kind of artificial muscle working at high pressure was researched. Different muscle styles are compared and MicKibben structure is selected while fluid media is determined. Furthermore, factors of geometry and material properties, which limit the ultimate pressure, are analyzed. Formulas and simulations verify the influence of limitation and help to calculate key parameters of 18MPa artificial muscle. Data show that it is possible in theory to design high pressure artificial muscle by overall consideration of initial diameter, initial contraction angle and material properties, initial length only influent the stroke.

Author(s):  
Nicholas Mazzoleni ◽  
Jeong Yong Kim ◽  
Matthew Bryant

Abstract Fluidic artificial muscles (FAMs) are a popular actuation choice due to their compliant nature and high force-to-weight ratio. Variable recruitment is a bio-inspired actuation strategy in which multiple FAMs are combined into motor units that can be pressurized sequentially according to load demand. In a traditional ‘fixed-end’ variable recruitment FAM bundle, inactive units and activated units that are past free strain will compress and buckle outward, resulting in resistive forces that reduce overall bundle force output, increase spatial envelope, and reduce operational life. This paper investigates the use of inextensible tendons as a mitigation strategy for preventing resistive forces and outward buckling of inactive and submaximally activated motor units in a variable recruitment FAM bundle. A traditional analytical fixed-end variable recruitment FAM bundle model is modified to account for tendons, and the force-strain spaces of the two configurations are compared while keeping the overall bundle length constant. Actuation efficiency for the two configurations is compared for two different cases: one case in which the radii of all FAMs within the bundle are equivalent, and one case in which the bundles are sized to consume the same amount of working fluidvolume at maximum contraction. Efficiency benefits can be found for either configuration for different locations within their shared force-strain space, so depending on the loading requirements, one configuration may be more efficient than the other. Additionally, a study is performed to quantify the increase in spatial envelope caused by the outward buckling of inactive or low-pressure motor units. It was found that at full activation of recruitment states 1, 2, and 3, the tendoned configuration has a significantly higher volumetric energy density than the fixed-end configuration, indicating that the tendoned configuration has more actuation potential for a given spatial envelope. Overall, the results show that using a resistive force mitigation strategy such as tendons can completely eliminate resistive forces, increase volumetric energy density, and increase system efficiency for certain loading cases. Thus, there is a compelling case to be made for the use of tendoned FAMs in variable recruitment bundles.


2008 ◽  
Vol 07 (01) ◽  
pp. 65-67
Author(s):  
CHANGPING ZOU ◽  
LI DU ◽  
XIANDE HUANG

A new type of six-bar swaying machine was put forward, which is an ingenious combination of plane multi-bar mechanism and high pressure oil cylinder. Preliminary analysis shows that this machine has many advantages, such as the torque produced by its unit weight, its small size, its light deadweight, etc. Thus it can be applied to situations that need swaying mechanism with low rotational speed and great torque. Firstly, the mechanism composition and working principle of the swaying machine were introduced. Secondly, parameterized modeling of the mechanism was carried out by utilizing software ADAMS. Then kinematic analysis and kinetic analysis were completed by using ADAMS. Finally, key dimensions were adjusted according to kinetic analysis. These tasks are believed to be beneficial to the development of the novel transmission.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. H. Park ◽  
J. Dana

Abstract Anisotropic composite materials have been extensively utilized in mechanical, automotive, aerospace and other engineering areas due to high strength-to-weight ratio, superb corrosion resistance, and exceptional thermal performance. As the use of composite materials increases, determination of material properties, mechanical analysis and failure of the structure become important for the design of composite structure. In particular, the fatigue failure is important to ensure that structures can survive in harsh environmental conditions. Despite technical advances, fatigue failure and the monitoring and prediction of component life remain major problems. In general, cyclic loadings cause the accumulation of micro-damage in the structure and material properties degrade as the number of loading cycles increases. Repeated subfailure loading cycles cause eventual fatigue failure as the material strength and stiffness fall below the applied stress level. Hence, the stiffness degradation measurement can be a good indication for damage evaluation. The elastic characterization of composite material using mechanical testing, however, is complex, destructive, and not all the elastic constants can be determined. In this work, an in-situ method to non-destructively determine the elastic constants will be studied based on the time of flight measurement of ultrasonic waves. This method will be validated on an isotropic metal sheet and a transversely isotropic composite plate.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyeong Ho Cho ◽  
Ho Moon Kim ◽  
Youngeun Kim ◽  
Sang Yul Yang ◽  
Hyouk Ryeol Choi

Soft linear actuators (SLAs) such as shape memory alloy (SMA) wires, pneumatic soft actuators, dielectric elastomer actuator, and twisted and coiled soft actuator (TCA) called artificial muscle actuators in general, have many advantages over the conventional actuators. SLAs can realize innovative robotic technologies like soft robots, wearable robots, and bionic arms in the future, but further development is still needed in real applications because most SLAs do not provide large displacement or force as needed. This paper presents a novel mechanism supplementing SLAs by accumulating the displacement of multiple SLAs. It adopts the principle of differential gears in reverse. Since the input units of the mechanism are extensible, more displacement can be accumulated by increasing the number of the input units as many as needed. The mechanism is basically used to accumulate displacements, but can be used to accumulate forces by changing its operating mode. This paper introduces the design and working principle of the mechanism and validates its operation experimentally. In addition, the mechanism is implemented on a robotic arm and its effectiveness is confirmed.


Author(s):  
Alessandro Valgimigli ◽  
Enrico Bertocchi ◽  
Alberto Lazzarini ◽  
Luca D’agostino ◽  
Luca Splendi

The strong competition of the automotive market brings the industries to look continuously for more challenging comfort and performance standards. These requirements often contrast with the need for weight reduction related to the restrictive emissions limits. In this scenario, the investments aimed at increasing the structure efficiency (stiffness-to-weight ratio) become fundamental. The objective of this work is to propose a methodology that allows to identify the most important chassis areas in terms of efficiency: the design and research efforts could then be focused on the real determinant parts. This is done through a sensitivity process that works on frame subsystems and then on each component, first varying the material properties and then the thickness (and so the mass). The designing loadcases considered are the torsional stiffness, bending stiffness, modal analysis and frequency response analysis. The results show which are the most important subsystems and components that affects the chassis efficiency and that will have to be re-designed in order to improve the current architecture.


Metals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Bayat ◽  
Sayantan Sarkar ◽  
Bharath Anantharamaiah ◽  
Francesco Italiano ◽  
Aleksandar Bach ◽  
...  

Increased passenger safety and emission control are two of the main driving forces in the automotive industry for the development of light weight constructions. For increased strength to weight ratio, ultra-high-strength steels (UHSSs) are used in car body structures. Prediction of failure in such sheet metals is of high significance in the simulation of car crashes to avoid additional costs and fatalities. However, a disadvantage of this class of metals is a pronounced scatter in their material properties due to e.g., the manufacturing processes. In this work, a robust numerical model is developed in order to take the scatter into account in the prediction of the failure in manganese boron steel (22MnB5). To this end, the underlying material properties which determine the shapes of forming limit curves (FLCs) are obtained from experiments. A modified Marciniak–Kuczynski model is applied to determine the failure limits. By using a statistical approach, the material scatter is quantified in terms of two limiting hardening relations. Finally, the numerical solution obtained from simulations is verified experimentally. By generation of the so called forming limit bands (FLBs), the dispersion of limit strains is captured within the bounds of forming limits instead of a single FLC. In this way, the FLBs separate the whole region into safe, necking and failed zones.


2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 18-29
Author(s):  
Thanh Diep Cong Tu

In recent years, CPM - Continuous Passive Motion has been proved to be one of the most effective therapeutic methods for patients who have problems with motion such as spinal cord injury, ankle and knee injury, parkinson and so on. Many commercial CPM devices are found in market but all of them use motors as the main actuators. The lack of human compliance of electric actuators, which are commonly used in these machines, makes them potentially harmful to patients. An interesting alternative, to electric actuators for medical purposes, particularly promising for rehabilitation, is a pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) actuator because of its high power/weight ratio and compliance properties. However, the highly nonlinear and hysteresis of PAM make it the challenging for design and control. In this study, a PID compensation using neural network control is studied to improve the control performance of the novel model of Knee CPM device.


2012 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 69-74
Author(s):  
Tadashi Ihara ◽  
Taro Nakamura ◽  
Kinji Asaka

We have fabricated a prototype model artificial muscle that drives model phalanges in water with ion polymer metal compound (IPMC) which generates relatively large displacement with fast response but generates relatively small force. We have developed IPMC of greater thickness of up to 600 µm than conventional Nafion 117 based IPMC of 200 µm which enabled to generate greater force. In fabricating IPMC Nafion R-1100 resin was heat-pressed at 185 °C with 20-30 MPa. The thickness of IPMC could be adjusted by changing the amount of resin, pressure, and time to heat-press. Fabricated IPMC was then cut in shapes and an electrode was attached on the surface of IPMC. The device was used as an artificial muscle type actuator which was fabricated in a shape that bridges two conjoining bones, and controls opening angle of the bones that mimics contraction and expansion motion of the muscle. Bipolar power supply and function generators were used to drive IPMC membranes attached to the model phalanges.


2011 ◽  
Vol 201-203 ◽  
pp. 2220-2223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Ju Si ◽  
Kang Min Zhong ◽  
Jun Peng Jia

Two-point floating clamping device, widely used in manufacturing field, can effectively ensure the same clamping force on different workpieces or different surfaces in one workpiece. But due to the application of unitary suspended articulated cylinder, traditional two-point floating devices have disadvantages such as poor working status, great impaction, vibration and noise. A kind of innovatively designed two-point floating clamping devices, with rigidly fixed cylinder replacing unitary suspended articulated cylinder, is presented in this paper. To solve the problem of insufficient degrees of freedom, three different methods are applied. This device has significant advantages in compact structure, small impaction and vibration noise. Moreover, the working principle and mechanical calculation formulas are presented in this paper, which is instructive to the industrial field.


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