Development of Next-generation McKibben muscles

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26249028
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Intelligent mechanics/Mechanical systems
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Suzumori Koichi 東京工業大学, 工学院, 教授 (00333451)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 脇元 修一 岡山大学, 自然科学研究科, 准教授 (40452560) ; 安積 欣志 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, その他部局等, 研究員 (10184136)
• Research Collaborator: Kitawaki Tomoki
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 人工筋肉 / 筋骨格ロボット / マッキベン型人工筋

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To realize robots with flexible and "living-like" characteristics, it is essential to realize an "artificial muscle" that has sufficient contracting capacity and can be accumulated to drive highly redundant mechanisms.
In this research, we realized 1) “next-generation McKibben artificial muscle” characterized by “electric drive” and “multi-fiber structure”, and applied it to 2) “musculoskeletal robot mechanisms” to demonstrate its potential. Specifically, (1) we focused on the McKibben muscle and realized the artificial muscle with shape and characteristics similar to human muscles by the new driving method with chemical reaction of water and the diameter reduction. And (2) the muscles were applied to musculoskeletal robots and power suits to show that the realization of motion/force characteristics similar to humans and the realization of power support that fits the body.

Free Research Field

ソフトメカニクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

しなやかに動く多繊維型の人工筋肉はこれまでに類似のものがなく，実現が難しかったしなやかに動く筋骨格ロボットやパワースーツを実現した．その生き物のような動きは専門家にも一般社会でも評価された．すなわち，筋骨格ロボットの論文は現在，掲載誌のwebアクセス数累計第2位となり，熱烈なファンが多いSFアニメ「攻殻機動隊」Realize Projectからは，同アニメのイメージに最も近い技術としてthe Award 2016 (ロボット部門)グランプリを頂いた．YouTubeに掲載した動画の再生数は1年間で70万回を超えた．一般社会にも，従来のモータ駆動とは異なるしなやかなロボットの実現可能性を示した．