IIT Kanpur develops bio-inspired artificial muscle for next-gen space robots and medical prostheses

IIT Kanpur researchers have developed a bio-inspired artificial muscle for next-gen space robots and medical prostheses. It can be used to reinforce Indian space technology and also create adaptive robotic prostheses.

IIT Kanpur’s Smart Materials, Structures and Systems (SMSS) has developed a bio-inspired artificial muscle for next-generation space robots and medical prostheses.

Encouraged by the industry demand and growth in the field of miniature, light weight, non-magnetic gear-free actuators, shape memory alloy (SMA) based actuators have emerged with an excellent power-to-weight ratio as a suitable alternative to the conventional actuators.

(An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system.)

However, existing SMA actuators have limited scope in terms of higher force or torque output due to the relatively simple architecture of the actuation mechanism.

To address this limitation, the SMSS Lab at IIT Kanpur, inspired by the Portescap CSR funding, have expanded the design space of the SMA actuator by leveraging the characteristics of bi-pennate muscle architecture with about 70% enhanced muscle force output per unit weight.

This will result in the creation of a new class of space robots which will reinforce the Indian space technology.

The research team is led by Prof. Bishakh Bhattacharya, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kanpur, and consists Kanhaiya Lal Chaurasiya, Senior Project Engineer, Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur; Abhishek Kumar Singh, Senior Project Mechanic; A Sri Harsha, and Yashaswi Sinha, Project Engineer, Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur.