Characteristic Analysis and Experimental Evaluation of Fluidic Muscle Cylinder

The fluidic muscle cylinder consists of an air bellows tube, flanges and lock nuts. Its features are softness of material and motion, simplicity of structure, low production cost and high power efficiency. Recently, unlike the pneumatic cylinder, the fluidic muscle cylinder without air leakage, stick slip, friction or seals was developed as a new concept actuator. It has characteristics such as light weight, low price, high response, durable design, long life, high power and high contraction. In this study, we carried out finite element modeling and analysis on the main design variables such as contraction ratio and force, and diameter increment of the fluidic muscle cylinder. On the basis of finite element analysis, the prototype fluidic muscle cylinder was fabricated and tested. Finally, we compared the test results with the finite element analysis.