Super-strong artificial muscles developed at Illinois

MechSE assistant professor Sameh Tawfick, Beckman postdoctoral fellow Caterina Lamuta, and Simon Messelot recently published a study on how to design super strong artificial muscles in the journal Smart Material and Structures. The new muscles are made from carbon fiber-reinforced siloxane rubber and have a coiled geometry. These muscles are capable of not only lifting up to 12,600 times their own weight, but also supporting up to 60 MPa of mechanical stress, providing tensile strokes higher than 25% and specific work of up to 758 J/kg.