Origami-inspired soft artificial muscles

It looks like this is some kind of pneumatic system, and IMHO if you're calculating strength/weight you would need to take into account the weight of the air compressor, to have a fair comparison with biological muscle. Not to mention the fact that air compressors need to have an energy source, and are quite noisy.

Re: Origami-inspired soft artificial muscles

#5

Post by cdancette » Tue, Nov 28, 2017, 4:53 PM UTC

They are basically inflating and deflating balloons filled with some flexible structure.

So 1000x might not be that impressive, because they are very lightweight.

And I guess it requires a big pumping device in addition to the muscle (which weight is not included in the calculation, but certainly should be).

Re: Origami-inspired soft artificial muscles

#6

Post by JoeAltmaier » Tue, Nov 28, 2017, 4:55 PM UTC

fallingfrog wrote: post #4

It looks like this is some kind of pneumatic system, and IMHO if you're calculating strength/weight you would need to take into account the weight of the air compressor, to have a fair comparison with biological muscle. Not to mention the fact that air compressors need to have an energy source, and are quite noisy.

So its the limit, at scale. Build a big compressor, run a bigger machine with artificial muscle, the weight of the compressor becomes a small part of the whole.

Re: Origami-inspired soft artificial muscles

#7

Post by cdancette » Tue, Nov 28, 2017, 5:00 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #6

fallingfrog wrote: post #4

It looks like this is some kind of pneumatic system, and IMHO if you're calculating strength/weight you would need to take into account the weight of the air compressor, to have a fair comparison with biological muscle. Not to mention the fact that air compressors need to have an energy source, and are quite noisy.

So its the limit, at scale. Build a big compressor, run a bigger machine with artificial muscle, the weight of the compressor becomes a small part of the whole.

Pneumatic to kinetic energy is much less efficient than electric to kinetic, so you're going to waste a lot of energy. And I guess the body is even better at energy efficiency

Re: Origami-inspired soft artificial muscles

#8

Post by JoeAltmaier » Tue, Nov 28, 2017, 5:08 PM UTC

cdancette wrote: post #7

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So its the limit, at scale. Build a big compressor, run a bigger machine with artificial muscle, the weight of the compressor becomes a small part of the whole.

Pneumatic to kinetic energy is much less efficient than electric to kinetic, so you're going to waste a lot of energy. And I guess the body is even better at energy efficiency

But apparently the efficiency of these muscle fibres are greater than that of electric ones. So maybe a win?

Re: Origami-inspired soft artificial muscles

#9

Post by blacksmith_tb » Tue, Nov 28, 2017, 5:15 PM UTC

cdancette wrote: post #5

They are basically inflating and deflating balloons filled with some flexible structure. So 1000x might not be that impressive, because they are very lightweight. And I guess it requires a big pumping device in addition to the muscle (which weight is not included in the calculation, but certainly should be).

The weight of the compressor is important, but one compressor could be driving lots of 'muscles' via opening and closing valves, so it isn't completely disingenuous. It's analogous to, say, a robot with six motors, all powered from a single battery.

Re: Origami-inspired soft artificial muscles

#10

Post by keenerd » Tue, Nov 28, 2017, 5:15 PM UTC

fallingfrog wrote: post #4

It looks like this is some kind of pneumatic system, and IMHO if you're calculating strength/weight you would need to take into account the weight of the air compressor, to have a fair comparison with biological muscle. Not to mention the fact that air compressors need to have an energy source, and are quite noisy.

The "big new thing" about this is that it doesn't use compressed air the way traditional air muscles do. It doesn't use compressed air at all.

You're probably going to say that vacuum pumps are noisy/heavy next. But this doesn't need traditional high-grade vacuum pumps, very low grade will work. And of course it is entirely moot for industrial machines that stand in place.

From what I can tell the trick comes from the pleating to massively increase surface area, giving atmospheric pressure more to work with.

I've been working with robotics (as a hobbyist) my entire life. This is the most exciting thing that I've seen in a while and I'll be building prototype knockoffs all week.