Title: Towards development of a bio-inspired artificial muscle using IPMC for potential applications in robotics

Authors: Farid A. Tolbah; Magdy M. Abdelhameed; Mohammed Ibrahim Awad; Sabreen Abdallah Abdelwahab

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract: Biological muscle is an efficient actuator that has unique characteristics; such as flexibility, high specific power and lightweight. There is a real need to develop an artificial muscle which mimics the characteristics and functionality of the biological muscle. In this paper a new bio-inspired multi-segment muscle actuator model is presented using ionic polymeric metallic composites (IPMC). The contraction stage model of the actuator is derived and the force-length relation of the actuator shows that the actuator can produce a maximum total force of 0.12 N, and it can contract a total axial displacement of 12 mm/step.

Keywords: multi-segment artificial muscle; MAM; ionic polymeric metallic composites; IPMC; wave propagation; bio-inspired actuators; contraction stage; force-length relation; maximum force; axial displacement; bioengineering; robotics; human assistive devices; autonomous robots.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMRS.2015.074112

International Journal of Mechanisms and Robotic Systems, 2015 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.341 - 364

Received: 14 Dec 2014
Accepted: 09 Jul 2015

Published online: 11 Jan 2016 *

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