Patterned Structure Muscle : Arbitrary Shaped Wire-driven Artificial Muscle Utilizing Anisotropic Flexible Structure for Musculoskeletal Robots

TL;DR

This paper introduces Patterned Structure Muscle (PSM), a novel artificial muscle made with anisotropic flexible structures and wire-driven mechanisms, enabling diverse shapes and functions for musculoskeletal robots.

Contribution

The paper presents a new design for artificial muscles using patterned anisotropic structures and 3D printing, allowing for versatile shapes and applications in robotic systems.

Findings

PSM can be fabricated in various shapes including multi-DOF and branched structures.

Demonstrated the ability of PSM to lift heavy objects and perform complex movements.

PSM operates effectively in different environmental contact scenarios.

Abstract

Muscles of the human body are composed of tiny actuators made up of myosin and actin filaments. They can exert force in various shapes such as curved or flat, under contact forces and deformations from the environment. On the other hand, muscles in musculoskeletal robots so far have faced challenges in generating force in such shapes and environments. To address this issue, we propose Patterned Structure Muscle (PSM), artificial muscles for musculoskeletal robots. PSM utilizes patterned structures with anisotropic characteristics, wire-driven mechanisms, and is made of flexible material Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) using FDM 3D printing. This method enables the creation of various shapes of muscles, such as simple 1 degree-of-freedom (DOF) muscles, Multi-DOF wide area muscles, joint-covering muscles, and branched muscles. We created an upper arm structure using these muscles to demonstrate wide range of motion, lifting heavy objects, and movements through environmental contact. These experiments show that the proposed PSM is capable of operating in various shapes and environments, and is suitable for the muscles of musculoskeletal robots.