MAGNETIC ACTUATION OF AN ARTIFICIAL MUSCLE MODEL

Abstract

Human and Animal movement is driven by muscle which is a biological elastic actuator. As muscles can operate in different modes depending on the contraction dynamics and structural implementation, it would be desirable to have an artificial actuator with similar capabilities in order to cater muscular disabilities. A Hill Based muscle model was designed containing a contractile element majorly responsible for active force generation and a nonlinear element responsible for passive force generation. The muscle model was designed on the principle of lead screw mechanism in which a primary magnetic shaft attached to a motor was used to drive the secondary magnetic shaft. The rotatory motion of magnetic shafts was then used to obtain linear motion through a lead screw mechanism giving us a sarcomere like contraction in the secondary shaft. Load vs. RPM testing was performed followed by final parametric testing and Data Analysis.