Integration of micro artificial muscle cells using electro-conjugate fluid

Abstract

An artificial muscle is one of the key technologies for soft robots. This paper describes design, fabrication, and characterization of an artificial muscle cell using an electro-conjugate fluid (ECF) and integration of the cells. The ECF is a kind of dielectric and functional fluid, which generates a powerful jet flow or ECF jet under an electrostatic field applied with an electrode pair. It is experimentally clarified that the smaller electrodes generate a more powerful ECF jet with constant voltage applied. The authors propose in this study a new type of micro artificial muscle cell using electro-conjugate fluid (ECF micro artificial muscle cell). This soft actuator having a power source inside is compact enough for integration. By integrating a large number of cells, we can realize a macro-sized artificial muscle. In this paper, we fabricate a prototype of ECF micro artificial muscle cell (Ø 12.5 mm × 13 mm), and integrate four cells into a 2 × 2 ECF artificial muscle actuator showing larger stroke and force. The maximum stroke and force are 1.56 mm and 320.5 mN with a single cell, and they are increased to be 2.8 mm and 504.1 mN with the 2 × 2 ECF artificial muscle actuator.