Muscle-Like Actuators and Their System Dynamics

Muscle-like actuators can be composed by connecting together individual contractile modules in a variety of configurations. This chapter shows that by including more or fewer modules and varying how they are connected the designer can tailor the configuration to the application in precise ways and produce actuators in a range of form factors. As more of the units are recruited, or brought into the active state, the muscle-like actuator contracts, imparting motion to the robot. New algorithms are needed to determine how best to recruit, and these algorithms must consider the system dynamics of the muscle-like actuator, which will depend on how they are configured, unlike traditional actuators which are easily modeled by linear filters.