Our work with the MIT Media Lab on electrofluidic fiber muscles is out in Science Robotics.
The paper introduces a class of artificial muscles in fiber format that integrates charge-injection fiber pumps and thin McKibben actuators into a single closed fluidic circuit. Because the pump lives inside the muscle, the system needs no external compressor and no tubes running off-body: it is electric, silent and untethered.
The central finding concerns bias pressure. By pre-pressurising the circuit, the modular muscles reach a power density comparable to that of skeletal muscle — the benchmark the field has been chasing for decades. Woven in antagonistic pairs, one fiber contracts while the other extends, reproducing the biceps–triceps arrangement of the human arm.
The work is authored by Ozgun Kilic Afsar, Gabriele Pupillo, Gennaro Vitucci, Wedyan Babatain, Hiroshi Ishii and Vito Cacucciolo, with the support of the European Research Council.