Control System of Artificial Chemico-Mechanical Muscle. Medical Robotics Application

Abstract

Currently McKibben's pneumatic muscle shows a great functional analogy to the skeletal muscle. It readily enables to motorize the arms of robots in a closer manner to the human arm than traditional robots. However, the dependence of McKibben's pneumatic muscle with respect to pneumatic source under pressure limits its application to the motorization of arms to fixed station. What is missing with the McKibben's pneumatic muscle is an efficient energy autonomy of the type required in the current project of chemico-mechanical artificial muscle. This present work will focus on an alternative way in which biochemical energy is transformed into osmotic energy and then into mechanical energy by means of a chemico-mechanical muscle. An Application to medical robotics.