Characterization of Mckibben Pneumatic artificial muscle

• Main Author: Renung Kinanthi.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54146
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

McKibben Muscle, also known as Pneumatic Artificial Muscle, is widely used today. Its characteristic compliance and versatility makes it suitable for various uses ranging from hard-duty industrial use to mimicking human muscle. This project studied the various characteristics of McKibben muscle with the hope of gaining a base understanding of characteristics of McKibben muscles that have never been the focuses of previous research. Several different characteristics were studied in this project, namely contraction length, diameter expansion, muscle stiffness, and activation time. All characteristics were studied in their relationship to the operating pressures used to energize the muscle. All other parameters were kept constant to ensure that no relationships between the factors can contribute anything to the operation of the muscle. This project culminated in the generation of four characteristics curves of this muscle. It was found that the muscle behaves in non-linear fashion in all the characteristics studied. This confirmed the existing convention of the non-linearity of the muscle, as well as providing insight on characteristics that were not much studied before.