title: Artificial muscles from fishing line and sewing thread.
abstract: The high cost of powerful, large-stroke, high-stress artificial muscles has combined with performance limitations such as low cycle life, hysteresis, and low efficiency to restrict applications. We demonstrated that inexpensive high-strength polymer fibers used for fishing line and sewing thread can be easily transformed by twist insertion to provide fast, scalable, nonhysteretic, long-life tensile and torsional muscles. Extreme twisting produces coiled muscles that can contract by 49%, lift loads over 100 times heavier than can human muscle of the same length and weight, and generate 5.3 kilowatts of mechanical work per kilogram of muscle weight, similar to that produced by a jet engine. Woven textiles that change porosity in response to temperature and actuating window shutters that could help conserve energy were also demonstrated. Large-stroke tensile actuation was theoretically and experimentally shown to result from torsional actuation.
authors.affiliation: The Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75083, USA.
authors.forename: Carter S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Haines
authors.forename: Márcio D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Geoffrey M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Spinks
authors.forename: Javad
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Foroughi
authors.forename: John D W
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Madden
authors.forename: Shi Hyeong
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Shaoli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Mônica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jung de Andrade
authors.forename: Fatma
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Göktepe
authors.forename: Özer
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Göktepe
authors.forename: Seyed M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Mirvakili
authors.forename: Sina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naficy
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lepró
authors.forename: Jiyoung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Mikhail E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Kozlov
authors.forename: Seon Jeong
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Xiuru
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Benjamin J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Swedlove
authors.forename: Gordon G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: Ray H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Baughman
mesh_terms: D032561:Cotton Fiber; D006801:Humans; D009132:Muscles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009757:Nylons; D011108:Polymers; D016062:Porosity; D013718:Tensile Strength; D054159:Torsion, Mechanical
chemical_list: D009757:Nylons; D011108:Polymers