Engineering news
Engineers at the University of Cambridge have developed artificial muscles that can learn and recall specific movements using different temperatures, the first time that motion control and memory have been combined in a synthetic material.
The “muscles” are made from smooth plastic and change size or shape when they receive an electrical signal. Through a number of mechanisms and stimuli, movement like a natural muscle can be achieved.
The researchers “chemically modified” thin strips of a bendable, commercially-available material which is used in batteries and fuel cells. They then the programmed a variety of shapes at different temperatures. The movements were then later recovered one-by-one, on demand, by going back to the temperature which was used to programme it.
The restored states can be cycled thousands of times using low voltage inputs of between one and two volts. These low voltages and the potential biocompatibility of the muscles could lead to bio-implantable devices, said the researchers.
The research also analysed the dependence of the movement on the amount of mechanical programming, and the mechanism underlying the muscles’ behaviour.
Research lead, Dr Stoyan Smoukov from Cambridge University's Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, said: “Muscles in animals have the ability to both control motion and develop muscle memory in the same tissue, but reproducing these multiple functions in an artificial muscle has not been possible until now.”
The material could eventually be used in a wide range of applications where mimicking the movement of natural muscle would be an advantage, such as robotics, aerospace, exoskeletons and biomedical applications. The researchers are now developing a general methodology to create muscles which incorporate different types of functionality.