Bionic Humans Using EAP as Artificial Muscles Reality and Challenges

摘要

For many years, the idea of a human with bionic muscles immediately conjuresup science fiction images of a TV series superhuman character that wasimplanted with bionic muscles and portrayed with strength and speed farsuperior to any normal human. As fantastic as this idea may seem, recentdevelopments in electroactive polymers (EAP) may one day make such bionicspossible. Polymers that exhibit large displacement in response to stimulationthat is other than electrical signal were known for many years. Initially, EAPreceived relatively little attention due to their limited actuation capability.However, in the recent years, the view of the EAP materials has changed due tothe introduction of effective new materials that significantly surpassed thecapability of the widely used piezoelectric polymer, PVDF. As this technologycontinues to evolve, novel mechanisms that are biologically inspired areexpected to emerge. EAP materials can potentially provide actuation withlifelike response and more flexible configurations. While further improvementsin performance and robustness are still needed, there already have been severalreported successes. In recognition of the need for cooperation in thismultidisciplinary field, the author initiated and organized a series ofinternational forums that are leading to a growing number of research anddevelopment projects and to great advances in the field. In 1999, he challengedthe worldwide science and engineering community of EAP experts to develop arobotic arm that is actuated by artificial muscles to win a wrestling matchagainst a human opponent. In this paper, the field of EAP as artificial muscleswill be reviewed covering the state of the art, the challenges and the visionfor the progress in future years.