Development of a pneumatic artificial muscle based on biomechanical characteristics

This paper reports the development of a pneumatic artificial muscle based on biomechanical characteristics. A wearable device and a rehabilitation robot which assists humans should have characteristics similar to those of human muscles. In addition, because the wearable device and the rehabilitation robot should be light, an actuator with a high power-to-weight ratio is needed. At present, the McKibben type is widely used as an artificial muscle. However, its physical model is highly nonlinear. Therefore, we have developed a new artificial muscle. In this paper, we report experimental results of the fundamental characteristics and biomechanical characteristics. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden and The Robotics Society of Japan, 2008.