Super strong artificial muscles

Researchers have developed artificial muscles that could make bodybuilders jealous. These artificial muscles are able to lift 1,000 times their own weight. They are stronger and can expand 15 times more than natural muscles. The strength and agility of these muscles do not diminish even after thousands of use cycles which just goes to show how durable the material is. 

It is expected that these muscles can be bundled together to create more powerful solutions capable of lifting heavier loads. The artificial muscle was built around a core of twisted fibers. These fibers are made up of cheap and lightweight material such as bamboo or silk that can stretch like a muscle. 

The core is then covered with a thin sheath of material that is the active part of the muscle. This sheath can respond to heat or electrochemical changes when researchers applied or removed heat, the muscles contracted or relaxed. Much like biological ones do.

Researchers hope to use the artificial muscles in exoskeletons, robots, prosthetic limbs, and even clothing. Most advanced robots are machines made from rigid materials, like metals and plastics. Soft robots exist, but they’re typically controlled by external air compressors and pimps used to inflate balloon-like structures. 

Some require voltages that are ten times higher than a household electrical socket to produce a current that simulate movement in stretchy material. Scientists becoming increasingly focused on designing robots using soft materials that more closely resemble biological systems, which can be more adaptable and better suited to working in close proximity to humans. 

But what happens if any of these muscles “tear”?. Our muscles are able to repair themselves over time. Now researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have built an artificial muscle that might be able to heal itself. The muscle called HASEL cost as little as 10 cents per device. 

This artificial muscle uses soft plastic pouches filled with electrically insulating liquids when voltage is applied, the device changes shape. The oil inside HASEL muscles can withstand electricity giving the device durability and the potential to self-heal. HASEl muscles can lift more than 200 times their weight, and is electrically powered, they exceed the flexing speed of the human muscle.

HASEL can be used to carry out a variety of tasks, from gently picking up delicate objects like eggs or raspberries to lifting objects many times their own weight, such as a gallon of water at rapid repetition rates. 

It could also help in creating artificial human tissue and organs. Soft robots can do a number of actions hard robots simply cannot perform. They can squeeze through tight space they can contract and expand with ease to fit a range of climates, they can even double as a part of the human body. 

Despite the benefits, perfecting robots has been a struggle for engineers for decades. Yet it has seen progress in recent years. A major soft robotics innovation was a “muscle” that could help the human heart maintain proper rhythm. This soft robotic sleeve twists and squeezes in a motion similar to the way heartbeats. 

This opens new treatment options for people suffering from heart filure, and the field of soft robotics and artificial muscles could revolutionize the medical industry as a whole as well as have massive impacts on how labor is performed by workers