Fabric Pneumatic Artificial Muscles Based on the Drawstring Principle

Abstract

Pneumatic artificial muscles have wide applications in robotics and industrial fields. Conventional pneumatic artificial muscles generate extra radial deformation during axial contraction, which severely wastes available working space. Inspired by the widely adopted drawstring principle in textile products, this paper proposes a novel drawstring fabric pneumatic artificial muscle (DPAM). Unlike traditional counterparts, the proposed DPAM produces no extra radial deformation during contraction, greatly improving structural compactness. The DPAM exhibits outstanding mechanical performance: a load capacity over 800 times its self-weight, a maximum contraction ratio of 44%, and a power density up to 4.98 kW/kg, alongside excellent scalability. Two representative application scenarios, bionic robots and industrial production lines, are demonstrated to validate its practicability. The DPAM can be easily expanded within a two-dimensional plane, as verified by the fabricated DPAM matrix. This work not only presents a high-performance novel pneumatic artificial muscle but also inspires researchers to draw design inspiration from conventional textile structures to address existing challenges in soft robotics.