Researchers have succeeded in making artificial muscle fibers from rubber thread, paving the way for sewing the muscles into a blouse and giving renewed strength to the wearer.
“I know it doesn’t look like a lot, but it corresponds to what our own muscles can lift,” says Anne Ladegaard Skov, Professor at DTU Chemical Engineering.
Together with her research team, she has designed the silicone thread with a cavity which a conductive liquid can run through. Just like when the brain sends an electrical signal to the body’s muscles to activate, the researchers can send current through the artificial muscle fibers via the conductive fluid and cause them to contract.
When this happens, they can lift 200 times their own weight. They thus have the potential to make life easier for millions of people with impaired muscle function.
I think ways to make tubes contract are not the issue, any simple hose will do that with pressure. There are robots using such systems. The interface to the human is the problem.
