Braided Artificial Muscle with Programmable Body Morphing and its Application to Elbow Joint Flexion

For pneumatic artificial muscles, it is always considered the more maximum contraction ratio the better. While for human joint assisting applications, PAMs with configurable maximum contraction rate are more suitable because of advantageous safety and adaptability. A PAM based on planar-to-specific-wave body shape morph is proposed in this work. Shape-morphing-based braided artificial muscles (SBAMs) have uniqueness of initial elasticity and maximum contraction ration programmability, which meet the favors of human joint assisting applications. The basic structure and working mechanism of contraction in SBAMs will be explained, and their mathematical model will also be established. According to the experimental results, a SBAM prototype generates a force more than 140 times its weight under an easily accessible pressure of 150 kPa. A mannequin wearing the SBAM enables actively flexes its elbow over 120 °.