Sewing thread and ordinary fishing line have joined forces in the laboratory to create artificial muscles that were very strong. Superhuman strength could be someday lent by the new artificial muscles to wearable exoskeletons and robots for people.
The distorted, coiled blends of sewing thread and polymer fishing line can raise 100 times more fat and have mechanical power that is 100 instances greater than the same size and weight. U.S. research workers in the College of Texas at Dallas caused co-workers from Sydney, Europe, China, South Korea and Turkey about the break-through step-by-step in the 2 1 February 2014 concern of the journal Science.
"The use chances for these polymer muscles are huge," mentioned Ray Baughman, the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry at UT Dallas and representative of the NanoTech Institute. "Now's most sophisticated wearable exoskeletons, and humanoid robots, prosthetic limbs are restricted by motors and hydraulic systems, whose dimensions and weight limit dexterity, force creation, and function capacity."
A package of fishing lines having a total diameter only 10 times broader-than the usual human hair can produce an artificial muscle effective at lifting more than 7 kilograms, Baughman stated. If united in parallel 100 of the manufactured muscles like biological muscles, might raise about 0.7 tonnes. The muscles also can create about 7.1 hp per kg, or even the equivalent mechanical power of the jet engine.
The twisted polymer fibers have enough torsional power to spin a heavy rotor more than 10 000 revolutions per minute when heated. Additional "extreme" twisting creates coiled artificial muscles that can either contract or expand along their length when heated, depending on the direction of the twist. These coils can contract by about 50 percent of their length—much more than biological muscles, which can contract by about 20 percent.
Such artificial muscles are usually electrically powered by resistive heating, said Carter Haines, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering at UT Dallas and lead author on the new study. The resistive heating can come from the metal coating of commercial sewing thread or from metal wires twisted together within the coiled muscles. But the muscles can also draw power from environmental temperature changes.
The new muscles could benefit technologies beyond enhancing the strength of future robots or robotic exoskeletons. Smaller bundles of the polymer muscles with a diameter thinner than a human hair could give life to more nuanced facial expressions in humanoid robots, or lend a precise touch to robotic microsurgery on the tiniest levels.
Researchers also envision the new muscles replacing typical motors in smart buildings with windows that automatically open and close in response to temperature changes, or powering tiny lab-on-a-chip devices.
The UT Dallas team led by Baughman previously experimented with artificial muscles based on carbon nanotubes twisted into bundles and infused with paraffin wax. But their latest work with the fishing line and sewing thread shows that even relatively mundane materials may have a lot to offer.
