Artificial Flower with Fluidic Fabric Muscles
Mengjia Zhu, Elliot Hawkes, Yon Visell
MAT End Of Year Show
Fluidic fabric muscle sheets actuators are used to fabricate an artificial flower. With fluidic actuation, the petals of the flower bend and relax in an organic fashion. The bending actuator is fabricated the same way as the contraction actuator, but with one of the two-way stretch fabric layers replaced by the non-stretch fabric. When a small volume of liquid is injected into the elastic tube, the tube can extend as the wall is constrained by stitches and fabrics. However, the top layer is extendable stretching fabric while the bottom layer is non-stretch fabric, the elastic tube generates a bending motion due to the difference in the elasticity between the two layers. Hydraulically actuated textiles also show many possibilities in human computer interaction and biomimetic soft robotics. Due to their high performance, compact size, conformability, and simplicity, hydraulically actuated textiles could greatly impact research in wearable robotics, bringing controlled movement to the burgeoning field of smart fabrics.
