Advantageous Artificial Muscles Drive Robots

Developed by ETH researchers, new artificial muscles that drive robots have several advantages over previous technologies. They could be used wherever robots need to be soft rather than rigid, or where they need more sensitivity in dealing with their surroundings. Watch this video to learn more.

“In other actuators, the electrodes are on the outside of the shell. In ours, the shell consists of different layers. We took a high-permittivity ferroelectric material, i.e. one that can store relatively large amounts of electrical energy, and combined it with a layer of electrodes. Next, we coated it with a polymer shell that has excellent mechanical properties and makes the pouch more stable,” explains Stephan-Daniel Gravert , who works as a scientific assistant in Katzschmann’s lab.