Researchers create the first robotic leg with ‘artificial muscles’

A team led by Swiss researchers announced Monday that it has created the first robotic leg with “artificial muscles.” made of oil-filled bags, which allow them to jump on different surfaces.

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The study, published by the revista Nature Communications, includes a video showing the tiny robotic leg jumping on grass, sand and rocks.

The researchers hope their technique will lead to the creation of humanoid robots capable of performing “boring household chores,” Robert Katzschmann, co-author of the study, told AFP.

The team was inspired by the 600 muscles that the human body uses to create a robot that is able to walk and jump fluently.

To do this, he used “artificial muscles,” which are also known as electrohydraulic actuators.

These muscles resemble small freezer bags.attached to the metal bones of the robotic leg.

These oil-filled structures, equipped with electrodes, contract and relaximitating the movement of a muscle.

Los humanoid robots They are typically built with motors and rigid metal joints similar to those used on industrial assembly lines, said Katzschmann, a robotics professor at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

But these industrial robots are too heavy, and therefore dangerous, and too expensive for home use.

And domestic robot should be able not only to carry loads, but “also to give a hug or shake hands.”

The artificial muscle technique has the advantage of consuming less energy than a traditional motor. when the robot’s knee is bent, the study indicates.

It also allows the leg to be used on difficult terrain with greater agility, according to the researchers.

The leg featured in the study is capable of jumping 13 centimeters, or 40 percent of its height.

But at the moment it can only perform this feat in a circle, as it is connected to an axis around which it rotates.

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It is not yet possible to create a humanoid robot powered entirely by artificial muscles.

But Katzschmann believes that mass production of artificial muscles, facilitated by the low cost of their components, could speed up future advances.

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*brc