An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted to powerful artificial muscles.
An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted #
The new muscles can lift 100 times more weight and generate 100 times higher mechanical power than a human muscle of the same length and weight. Per weight, they can generate 7.1 horsepower per kilogram, about the same mechanical power as a jet engine.
An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted #
In a paper published Feb. 21 in the journal Science, the researchers explain that the powerful muscles are produced by twisting and coiling high-strength polymer fishing line and sewing thread. Scientists at UT Dallas’ Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute teamed with scientists from universities in Australia, South Korea, Canada, Turkey and China to accomplish the advances.
An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted #
The muscles are powered thermally by temperature changes, which can be produced electrically, by the absorption of light or by the chemical reaction of fuels. Twisting the polymer fiber converts it to a torsional muscle that can spin a heavy rotor to more than 10,000 revolutions per minute.
An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted #
Subsequent twisting, so that the polymer fiber coils like a heavily twisted rubber band, produces a muscle that dramatically contracts along its length when heated, and returns to its initial length when cooled. If coiling is in a different twist direction than the initial polymer fiber twist, the muscles instead expand when heated.
An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted #
Compared to natural muscles, which contract by only about 20 percent, these new muscles can contract by about 50 percent of their length. The muscle strokes also are reversible for millions of cycles as the muscles contract and expand under heavy mechanical loads.
An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted #
“The application opportunities for these polymer muscles are vast,” said corresponding author Dr. Ray Baughman, the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry at UT Dallas and director of the NanoTech Institute. “Today’s most advanced humanoid robots, prosthetic limbs and wearable exoskeletons are limited by motors and hydraulic systems, whose size and weight restrict dexterity, force generation and work capability.”
An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted #
Baughman said the muscles could be used for applications in which superhuman strengths are sought, such as robots and exoskeletons. Twisting together a bundle of polyethylene fishing lines, whose total diameter is only about 10 times larger than a human hair, produces a coiled polymer muscle that can lift 16 pounds. Operated in parallel, similar to how natural muscles are configured, 100 of these polymer muscles could lift about 1,600 pounds, Baughman said.
An international team led by The University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted #
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