air muscle, arm, gadgets, japan, okayama university, prosthetics, robotics, robots

Japanese Team Breathes Life into Robotic Arm Whose Muscles Are Driven by Compressed Air

Japanese researchers have developed a new approach to robotics that could revolutionize the future of artificial limbs. The team, from Okinawa University, has come up with an amazing "muscle" design that is driven by compressed air and is simpler than the designs of many other prosthetic arms currently in development. More info, plus a video of the "muscles" in action after the jump.

By pumping air in and out of a mesh and rubber construction, the Okinawa "muscle" mimics the contracting motion of real muscles with their fine degree of control and power variation. The compressed air solution clearly offers more strength than is available in its flesh-and-bone equivalent, and placing the muscles in an artificial arm or hand that mimics the struture of a real one will enable the user to move more realistically than a conventional prosthetic arm allows—the motion of the hand unscrewing the light bulb in the video is just amazingly natural.

Currently at the prototype stage, the designs are more like robotic limbs than prosthetic ones, but there is potential to use the technology to help amputees in the future. The design is scaleable, too—an 8m muscle could create some fearsome mechanical arms on a JCB, or a remarkably dextrous factory robot.

Many prosthetics currently on offer can seem clunky, but this compressed-air muscle looks like a great idea. It seems more logical to use Nature's design rather than complex pistons or motors with gear-trains. Fingers crossed that they get incorporated into prosthetic aids as soon as possible. – Kit Eaton [TechEBlog]

10:50 AM on Mon Dec 17 2007
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16 comments

Comments

kittenman at 10:57 AM on 12/17/07
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god.. the gundums are coming!
RedBeard at 11:12 AM on 12/17/07
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the mass of muscles in the forearm looks strikingly similar to the design of the robot arms/legs in IRobot
RedBeard at 11:13 AM on 12/17/07
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@RedBeard:

[uk.gizmodo.com]
JackNapier at 11:32 AM on 12/17/07
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Not to be "That's old news" guy, but pneumatic muscles for robotics is _not_ new.
[brl.ee.washington.edu]
dingus at 11:53 AM on 12/17/07
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Would've been better if they used the Utah Teapot.
caliyalie at 12:09 PM on 12/17/07
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Chinese handcuffs, anyone?
J. Shirley at 12:33 PM on 12/17/07
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Awesome to see this technology getting usable. Back in 97 I saw a demonstration of this at Ames Research Center in Mtn. View California. It was a simple leg that was mounted to a fixed plate and would take steps and jump.

Still pretty impressive at the time, and now even better.

Tried to find some links to that project, but like most things at NASA it is buried amongst pure text press releases and no fancy YouTube videos... pity :(
jarobi at 12:51 PM on 12/17/07
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Just wait until i turn these into Jax arms. Its gonna be flawless victories all over the place...
Michai at 12:57 PM on 12/17/07
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Apply this tech to this previous post:

[gizmodo.com]

= robocop
starm_ at 01:23 PM on 12/17/07
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There is another company with similar technology:
[www.festo.com]
[www.festo.com]
Z-Knight at 02:54 PM on 12/17/07
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Japanese researches have developed squat...the "muscles" they use were developed by in the 1950's by J.L. McKibben...they are known as "McKibben Air Muscles".

Here is a company that sells them:
[www.imagesco.com]

Here is a project that used them to make a robot called "Stiffy":
[zaczek.com]

So, sorry Mr.Author, but this not some "new approach to robotics" because it has been used for decades.
Z-Knight at 02:55 PM on 12/17/07
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(sorry if this is a double post...first time posting and previous post did not appear)

Japanese researches have developed squat...the "muscles" they use were developed by in the 1950's by J.L. McKibben...they are known as "McKibben Air Muscles".

Here is a company that sells them:
[www.imagesco.com]

Here is a project that used them to make a robot called "Stiffy":
[zaczek.com]

So, sorry Mr.Author, but this not some "new approach to robotics" because it has been used for decades.
GottaGo at 06:28 PM on 12/17/07
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I think festo.com's arms and muscles are even more refined than this version. Festo doesn't have extraneous tubes sticking out everywhere - they're all built into the arm. Still, such a cool idea. Hope it further develops into actual products reasonably soon.
swartz at 09:07 AM on 12/18/07
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over at instructables.net there is a how to how t make a mussle like that.
uchiuchi at 01:10 PM on 12/19/07
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"Okayama University", not "Okinawa University"
RoadHazard at 01:34 AM on 04/14/08
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Like someone else already mentioned that this is not a new technology. The hand featured in the 1st picture is basically an eariler version of the Shadow Hand, developed at Shadow Robot Company [www.shadowrobot.com] . The video itself looks like it's from Shadow Robot as well. Their contact information can be seen at the end of video.