Twisting Artificial Muscles
Loading...
Uploaded by ACESElectromaterials on Oct 12, 2011
The prospect of developing microscopic sized swimming robots is possibly a step closer with the announcement of a new type of artificial muscle material that generates a very large and fast rotating action, developed by Dr Javad Foroughi, Prof Geoff Spinks and team at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute at the University of Wollongong, part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science.
Microscopic organisms like bacteria are propelled through fluids by their rotating flagella. A similar rotating type action can also be produced by millimetre lengths of thin threads composed of twisted carbon nanotubes. The threads are made by Prof Ray Baughman and his team at the University of Texas at Dallas. When immersed in a liquid electrolyte and a voltage applied the highly twisted yarns swell and partially untwist. The process can be reversed by reversing the voltage so that an reciprocating rotating action can be produced.
In this animation you first see a few bacteria like creatures swimming about. Their rotating flagella are highlighted with some detail of the flagella motor turning the "hook" and "filament" parts of the tail. We next see a similar type of rotating tail produced by a length of carbon nanotube thread that is inside a futuristic microbot. The yarn is immersed in a liquid electrolyte along with another electrode wire. Batteries and an electrical circuit are also inside the bot. When a voltage is applied the yarn partially untwists and turns the filament. Slow discharging of the yarn causes it to re-twist. In this way, we can imagine the micro-bot is propelled along in a series of short spurts.
This work was published in Science on 12th October 2011.
Further information at electromaterials.edu.au
- 25 likes, 1 dislikes
-
Link to this comment:
Top Comments
All Comments (9)
-
still a long long way to go
-
that looks really inefficient, they should try a spinning turbine just like in real flagella
-
looks dangerous
-
@TheProphetNL *facepalm*
-
looks kinda like seemen
- 0:25
Toshiba flexes its paper-thin LCD muscleby ihazurmom475,874 views
- 0:22
Air Muscle in action(3).AVIby yammization5,554 views
- 0:22
Artificial Flapping Muscle www.environmental-robots.comby environmentalrobots13,707 views
- 0:24
Electroactive Polymer Artificial Muscle (EPAM) Spring Roll Actuatorby hizook20,383 views
- 0:09
Electroactive Polymer Artificial Muscle (EPAM) Hexapod Robotby hizook22,563 views
- 0:34
ViviTouch - How EAP Worksby ArtificialMuscleInc18,708 views
- 1:58
Bacterium Flagellum Motorby mikedolding25,338 views
- 0:32
Inchworm robot with muscle-wireby peterkatuch213,597 views
- 2:59
Angry Greeks VS Angry Birdsby ToonPosers170,363 views
- 0:34
Nanobotsby pentiump00r589,398 views
- 1:49
Nanorobot in Microscaleby AutomatedNanorobots4,901 views
- 1:33
Organic LEDs and Artificial Musclesby CENonline2,136 views
- 6:44
Cable Basics 101: Conductorsby awcwire7,799 views
- 4:08
Are Carbon Nanotubes the Next Asbestos?by ncmls12,603 views
- 1:28
Electroactive polymer actuation at the Solid Mechanics Labby galdebotton2,648 views
- 0:39
Electroactive polymer (EAP) multilayer bending actuatorby patrickl9912,868 views
- 4:01
Torsional Carbon Nanotube Artificial Muscles MovieJavad Foroughiby javad351531 views
- 1:09
Microbots Move Through and Repair the Body on Dean of Inventionby PlanetGreenTV12,049 views
- 0:29
Home made two-way solenoid valve controlling air muscleby hhaggstr34,762 views
- 1:53
Artificial muscles for ankle and foot therapyby MicroroboticsLab724 views
Wat if one day people controlled these on there own like videogames?
tIt would be cool to be able to combat cancer from the comfort of your couch and watching it on a big screen tv.
UNIVERSALCONSOLE 5 months ago 7
It looks intelligently designed :P
TherionNLD 5 months ago 3