Braiding Polythene Lay‐Flat Tube into Cotton Threads for Artificial Muscle Actuation

Abstract

In wearable robotics, soft actuation principles have been increasingly explored and tested due to their safety and comfort in human–robot interactions. Herein, a braided flat‐tube artificial muscle (BFAM) is presented. BFAMs are fabricated by braiding cotton threads together with an inexpensive lay‐flat tube (LFT) in a specific conform‐to‐LFT weaving method. They generate uniaxial contractions when powered by compressed fluids. The basic structure and working mechanism of the proposed BFAM are explained, and a quasistatic model is also developed. A comparison with other fluidic driven soft actuators is made and tabulated. Based on experimental studies, the proposed BFAM can contract close to 30% and yield force outputs more than 150 times their weight at an air pressure of 0.12 MPa. BFAM can be braided with multiple layers of flat tube without large increase of size. Experimental studies have shown that more layers of flat tube give a larger strain and output force up to four layers, beyond which layer increase does not yield visible improvement in strain and output force. Finally, potential applications of BFAM to arm joint actuations are illustrated to show its easy fitting to wearable robotics.