Artificial muscles from fishing line and sewing thread | Science

by Sabine Hauert

25 February 2014

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In designing materials for artificial muscles, the goals are to find those that will combine high strokes, high efficiency, long cycle life, low hysteresis, and low cost. In the latest issue of Science, Haines et al. show that this is possible. Twisting high-strength, readily available polymer fibers, such as those used for fishing lines or sewing thread, to the point where they coil up, allowed construction of highly efficient actuators that could be triggered by a number of stimuli.

See on www.sciencemag.org

Sabine Hauert is President of Robohub and Associate Professor at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory

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