Experimental investigation of conductive fibers for a smart pneumatic artificial muscle

Recently, the demand for wearable apparatus for supporting human movement in the medical and welfare fields increases with low birthrate and aging of society in many countries. In these apparatus, a pneumatic artificial muscle like a McKibben artificial muscle is highly expected as the actuator because of its high power, light weight and flexibility. But the conventional displacement sensors are not suitable for controlling the pneumatic artificial muscle, because, compared with the artificial muscle, the sensors are expensive and rigid. Additionally they are incorporated in the system separately from the artificial muscle generally. In order to solve the problem, in this study, conductive fibers are utilized as the displacement sensor for the pneumatic artificial muscle by replacing the fiber component of the artificial muscle. This paper describes the basic design of a smart pneumatic artificial muscle integrating the conductive fibers as the sensor. Additionally results of basic characteristics of the smart pneumatic artificial muscle are shown experimentally.