Fluidic muscle
The pneumatic “fluidic muscle”, a completely new kind of pneumatic drive, is a development by Festo.
The bionic muscles consist mainly of a hollow elastomer cylinder embedded with aramid fibres. When the fluidic muscle fills with air, it increases in diameter and contracts in length, enabling a fluid, elastic movement.
The use of the fluidic muscle enables motion sequences which approach human movement not only in terms of kinematics, speed and strength, but also sensitivity.
The fluidic muscle can exert ten times the force of a comparably sized cylinder, is very sturdy, and can even be used under extreme conditions such as in sand or dust.
Additional information on the