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Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Cardiac Muscle Cell-based Actuator and Self-stabilizing Biorobot - Part 2
Published on: May 9, 2017
Challenges in realizing a self-contained hydraulically-driven contractile fiber actuator
1Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. esmela@umd.edu.
Abstract:
The field of soft robots would benefit from electrically controlled contractile actuators in the form of fibers that achieve a strain of 20% in less than a second while exerting high force. This work explores possible designs for achieving this goal using self-contained electroosmotic fluid pumping within a tube-shaped structure. The most promising configuration is a combination of a bellows and a McKibben-type muscle, since pumping fluid from the former to the latter results in contraction of both portions. Realizing such a device entails challenges in fabrication and electrokinetic fluid pumping in closed systems. Further studies of electroosmotic flow in salt-free organic solvents are needed.
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