Artificial muscles will power the soft robots and wearable devices of the future. But more needs to be understood about the underlying mechanics of these powerful structures in order to design and build new devices.
Soft Matter
Nov 15, 2019
0
119
Artificial muscles made from polymers can now be powered by energy from glucose and oxygen, just like biological muscles. This advance may be a step on the way to implantable artificial muscles or autonomous microrobots powered ...
Materials Science
Jun 19, 2019
0
43
Just as controlled-release medications slowly dole out their cargo after they experience a pH change in the body, implanted "artificial muscles" could someday flex and relax in response to light illuminating the skin. In ...
Materials Science
Apr 2, 2019
0
47
Grow Monsters. Expandable water toys. Whatever you call them, they're plastic-like figurines that swell when placed in water.
Nanophysics
Apr 18, 2018
0
103
The pull-up, an exercise dreaded by most, answers a basic question: are your muscles strong enough to lift your own body weight?
Materials Science
Apr 17, 2018
3
980
Artificial muscles made significant gains when a literal twist in the development approach uncovered the tensile—or stretchy—abilities of polymer fibers once they were twisted and coiled into a spring-like geometry. In ...
General Physics
Oct 31, 2016
0
1022
In recent years, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas and colleagues at the University of Wollongong in Australia have put a high-tech twist on the ancient art of fiber spinning, using modern materials to create ...
Materials Science
Sep 26, 2016
0
154
Soft robots do a lot of things well but they're not exactly known for their speed. The artificial muscles that move soft robots, called actuators, tend to rely on hydraulics or pneumatics, which are slow to respond and difficult ...
Engineering
Jul 21, 2016
0
816
(Phys.org)—A group of scientists at the University of Manchester in the U.K. has developed the first chemically powered autonomous molecular nanomotor—the motor mechanism is itself a transport medium that is capable of ...
If there's such a thing as an experiment that goes too well, a recent effort in the lab of Stanford chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao might fit the bill.
Materials Science
Apr 18, 2016
0
2773
