jt34@prism.gatech.EDU (THOMPSON,JOHN C) (06/06/91)
Does anyone know of a source for muscular type actuators?
How about research references on the subject? Thanks
--
THOMPSON,JOHN C
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!jt34
Internet: jt34@prism.gatech.edufrank@milo.berkeley.edu (Frank Tendick) (06/12/91)
In article <30737@hydra.gatech.EDU> jt34@prism.gatech.EDU (THOMPSON,JOHN C) writes: >Does anyone know of a source for muscular type actuators? >How about research references on the subject? Thanks There is an excellent chapter by Blake Hannaford and Jack Winters in Multiple Muscle Systems: Biomechanics and Movement Organization, J.M. Winters and S.L.-Y. Woo, eds., 1990 Springer-Verlag. They compare and contrast the properties of muscle with a variety of other actuators. They also describe some commercially available actuators which are designed to be "muscle-like." As pointed out by Doug Wilkie, however, there is no artificial actuator which has the unusual characteristic of muscle that it is also good to eat! :-) --- Frank Tendick (415)642-5309 486 Minor Hall frank@opus.berkeley.edu University of California Berkeley, CA 94720
bsercomb@gara.une.oz.au (Katani) (06/13/91)
a decent lifting capacity [150kg] from one of these?
powers@informatik.uni-kl.de (David Powers (AG Siekmann)) (06/13/91)
bsercomb@gara.une.oz.au (Katani) writes: >a decent lifting capacity [150kg] from one of these? Can ONE of your muscles accomplish decent lifting?
reeder@reed.UUCP (Doug Reeder) (06/18/91)
In article <30737@hydra.gatech.EDU> jt34@prism.gatech.EDU (THOMPSON,JOHN C) writes: >Does anyone know of a source for muscular type actuators? >How about research references on the subject? Thanks I have used nitinol alloy wire (shape memory metal). When you heat it up, it contracts. It is easily heated by running current through it. When you turn the current off, the heat radiates to the atmosphere and the wire lengthens. The wires I used: length 100mm diameter .15mm resistance 4 ohms max. wattatge .8 watts cooled off in about a second. I got them from Toki America, the American barnche of the Toki Corporation several years ago. I might be able to dig up their address if someone really needs it. They were selling it under the trademark name Biometal. A complete summary of my reseach results: It doesn't contract as far or with as much force as they claim it does. The 10 cm lengths contracted perhaps 6mm, with about 1 or 2 newtons of force, using perhaps 1 watt of power. Their efficiency is therefore about 1%. (This is all from memory) The power per unit mass is high. I spent something like $70 for 12 of these. -- Doug Reeder USENET: ...!tektronix!reed!reeder Internet: reeder@reed.EDU BITNET: reeder@reed.BITNET I'm looking for a grad school or a job as a research assistant where I can work on tethers for space propulsion or robotics, in particular, walking machines.