Material Extrusion of Helical Shape Memory Polymer Artificial Muscles for Human Space Exploration Apparatus

Astronauts suffer skeletal muscle atrophy in microgravity and/or zero-gravity environments. Artificial muscle-actuated exoskeletons can aid astronauts in physically strenuous situations to mitigate risk during spaceflight missions. Current artificial muscle fabrication methods are technically challenging to be performed during spaceflight. The objective of this research is to unveil the effects of critical operating conditions on artificial muscle formation and geometry in a newly developed helical fiber extrusion method. It is found that the fiber outer diameter decreases and pitch increases when the printhead temperature increases, inlet pressure increases, or cooling fan speed decreases. Similarly, fiber thickness increases when the cooling fan speed decreases or printhead temperature increases. Extrusion conditions also affect surface morphology and mechanical properties. Particularly, extrusion conditions leading to an increased polymer temperature during extrusion can result in lower surface roughness and increased tensile strength and elastic modulus. The shape memory properties of an extruded fiber are demonstrated in this study to validate the ability of the fiber from shape memory polymer to act as an artificial muscle. The effects of the operating conditions are summarized into a phase diagram for selecting suitable parameters for fabricating helical artificial muscles with controllable geometries and excellent performance in the future.