A team of researchers from Lintec, Phoenix, and The University of Texas at Dallas is the 2015 gold winner in the market disruptor product category of R&D Magazine’s 100 Special Recognition Award for its HeliAct Muscles.
According to the R&D Magazine website, the HeliAct Muscles technology provides long-life, low-cost, highly controllable artificial muscle fibers that can replace expensive, bulky, heavy motors. The polymer fiber muscles can contract by over 60 percent, lift loads over 100 times heavier than can human muscle of the same length and weight, and generate 5.3kW (7.1 horsepower) of mechanical power per kilogram of muscle weight, which is five times higher than produced by a car’s gasoline engine. HeliAct Muscles have implications for use in prosthetics, humanoid robots, and exoskeletons.
For more information about this innovation, read “Researchers Create Muscles from Fishing Line, Thread.”