Download Artificial Muscle based on Flexinol motor wire

Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Artificial Muscle based on
Flexinol motor wire
Scott Renkes
Advisor: David Noelle
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Purpose
 Design a new actuator
 Robotics
 Prosthetics
 Teleoperation
 Current technology
 Electric motors
 Hydraulics
 Pneumatics
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Why a new actuator?
 Replicate human movement
 Refined force and velocity control of
device
 Human like movement allows for better
man machine integration
 Humanoid robots can more easily mimic
humans
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Fibrous Bundled Structure
 Flexinol motor wire to
replace muscle fibers
 Package wires similar
to muscle
 Flexinol/muscle fiber
proportional elasticity
 Similar force/length
curves
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Uncle Brain wants YOU!
 One bundle, one neuron
 Weak fast, slow strong
 Properties of motor wire
allow for variety of activation
 Neural Network Controller
 Force feedback training
 Inverse Dynamics
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
EMG Controller
 Muscle Voltage vs
Muscle Force
 EMG signals
represent muscle
force
 Neural Network for
EMG pattern
recognition
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Project Status
 Completed work
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Study properties of motor wire
Calculate efficiency of passive cooling
Develop Structure and Control for the device
Design test bed
Examine neural network solution
 Current Work
 Finish building actuator and cooling system
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Future Work
 Design and build active cooling system
driven by actuator forces
 Code user friendly interface for training
and controlling neural network
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Questions?