Abstract：
Muscles are capable of modulating the body and adapting to environmental changes with a highly integrated sensing and actuation. Inspired by biological muscles, coiled/twisted fibers are adopted that can convert volume expansion into axial contraction and offer the advantages of flexibility and light weight. However, the sensing-actuation integrated fish line/yarn-based artificial muscles are still barely reported due to the poor actuation-sensing interface with off-the-shelf fibers. We report herein artificial coiled yarn muscles with self-sensing and actuation functions using the commercially available yarns. Via a two-step process, the artificial coiled yarn muscles are proved to obtain enhanced electrical conductivity and durability, which facilitates the long-term application in human-robot interfaces. The resistivity is successfully reduced from 172.39 Ω·cm (first step) to 1.27 Ω·cm (second step). The multimode sense of stretch strain, pressure, and actuation-sensing are analyzed and proved to have good linearity, stability and durability. The muscles could achieve a sensitivity (gauge factor, GF) of the contraction strain perception up to 1.5. We further demonstrate this self-aware artificial coiled yarn muscles could empower non-active objects with actuation and real-time monitoring capabilities without causing damage to the objects. Overall, this work provides a facile and versatile tool in improving the actuation-sensing performances of the artificial coiled yarn muscles and has the potential in building smart and interactive soft actuation systems.
摘要：
肌肉能够通过高度集成的感测和致动调节身体并适应环境变化。受到生物肌肉的启发，采用盘绕/加捻纤维，可以将体积膨胀转化为轴向收缩，具有柔韧性和重量轻的优点。然而,由于与现成纤维的不良致动-感测接口，感测-致动集成鱼线/基于纱线的人造肌肉仍然几乎没有报告。我们在此报告了使用市售纱线的具有自感和致动功能的人造盘绕纱线肌肉。通过两步过程，人工卷纱肌肉被证明具有增强的导电性和耐久性，这有助于在人机界面中的长期应用。电阻率成功地从172.39Ω·cm(第一步)降低到1.27Ω·cm(第二步)。拉伸应变的多模感，压力,和致动传感进行了分析，并证明具有良好的线性度，稳定性和耐久性。肌肉可以达到灵敏度(量规系数，GF)的收缩应变感知可达1.5。我们进一步证明了这种自我意识的人造卷曲纱线肌肉可以使非活动对象具有致动和实时监控功能，而不会对对象造成损害。总的来说,这项工作提供了一个简单的和通用的工具，在提高人工卷曲纱线肌肉的驱动传感性能，并具有潜力，在建设智能和交互式软驱动系统。
