A Mechanism for Biomimetic Actuation in Lamprey-like Robots

Abstract

This paper describes the combination of a commercial actuator with a 6-link mechanism purposely designed for providing the force/elongation behavior of natural muscles. The application of this system is the actuation of a biomimetic lamprey-like robot with many degrees of freedom. In this paper it is shown how the very unnatural characteristic of a solenoid actuator can be modified through a dedicated kinematic chain in order to replicate the qualitative curve of muscles, which are strong in their resting length and weak both in contracted and extended configurations