Artificial Muscle Limb

Artificial muscle is a device that is pneumatically actuated and
contains an expanding tube (bladder) surrounded by braided cords.
The braided cords are flexible but inextensible and form a mesh
shell around the inner bladder. The operating principle of
Artificial muscle is " First, the inner bladder is pnuematically
pressurized. This pressurization causes the inner bladder to push
against the outer braided mesh shell and tends to increase its
volume. Due to the large longitudinal stiffness (inextensibility)
of the cords in the braided mesh shell, the actuator shortens
according to its volume and generates tension force if coupled to
mechanical load. The physical configuration, due to pnuematic
cylinders causes muscle to have: * Variable-Stiffness spring-like
characteristics. * Nonlinear Passive Elasticity. * Light Weight.
This leads to a dynamic relationship between the input mass flow
rate of air that is controlled by the inlet valve and pressure in
the expanding tube.
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