Artificial muscles lift 80 times their weight, pave the way for robot Superman

Artificial muscles could pave the way to robots with 'superhuman' strength

Other than a few models from Boston Dynamics, most robots don’t exactly leave us quaking in fear. That might be off the table soon, though, thanks to a breakthrough from researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS). They’ve developed polymer-derived artificial muscles that can stretch out up to five times in length, enabling them to lift 80 times their weight. That could one day result in life-like robots with “superhuman strength and ability,” which could also run on very little power, according to the team. They expect to have a robotic limb that could smack down any human in arm-wrestling within five years — putting a possible cyborg version of Over The Top alarmingly within reach.

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Tokyo University of Science shows off robotic suit powered by pneumatic artificial muscles (video)

Tokyo University of Science shows off robotic suit powered by neumatic artificial muscles video

What can one do with a robot suit? Well, it’s certainly not limited to just lifting sacks of rice, but that was exactly what we got to do at CEATEC courtesy of Koba Lab from Tokyo University of Science. First seen in 2009, the magic behind this 9kg kit are the pair of pneumatic artificial muscles (aka McKibben artificial muscles) on the back, which are made by industrial equipment manufacturer Kanda Tsushin. When pressurized with air using electrical components from KOA Corporation, the lightweight, loosely-woven PET tubes contract and consequently provide support to the user’s back, shoulders and elbows. As such, our arms were able to easily hold two more sacks of rice (making it a total of 50kg) until the demonstrator deflated the muscles. Check out our jolly hands-on video after the break.

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Tokyo University of Science shows off robotic suit powered by pneumatic artificial muscles (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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