Experimental Investigation-Natural Fiber Braided Sleeve for Pneumatic Artificial Muscles Actuation

Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM) as an actuator to create pulling force and bulges mimicking a human muscle contraction. Currently, the method used to manufacture the PAMs is by braiding with artificial fibers. Natural fiber braided PAMs are rarely available for the usage in prosthesis. The novel contribution of this project is to design and develop a desirable low cost and lightweight Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM) actuator using different materials. In this study, the studies are conducted to find the effect of various braided materials such as nylon and Natural Fiber (Silk). The analysis is carried out on actuators of having constant longitudinal length of 140 mm varying the diameter namely 20 and 30 mm. The experiment was set up to collect the length and force variation data of the artificial muscle with various compressed air pressures. The force generated by PAM purely depends on the rate of pressure added and removal from the actuator and is contractile in nature upon inflation. PAM actuator find wide applications in various facets of robotic equipments and industrial automation.