DRIVING CHARACTERISTICS OF A MICRO ARTIFICIAL MUSCLE ACTUATOR USING ELECTRO-CONJUGATE FLUID

Abstract

Soft robot inspired from natural systems is one of keywords in the robotic field in last decade. Accordingly, many typesof artificial muscle actuators are developed. On the other hand, using an electro-conjugate fluid (ECF), which generatesa powerful jet flow when subjected to a high voltage, we can construct a tiny pressure source. This paper proposes anovel micro artificial muscle actuator (<1cm3) utilizing the fluid. The essence of this study is to develop the microartificial muscle integrated with micro pressure source, which enables us to construct an autonomous system and/orartificial muscle array. The contraction characteristics and normal force characteristics of the actuator were measured.The maximum contraction rate was around 16% and the force generated was about 0.2N with applied voltage of 6kV.The experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed actuator.