Scientists for many years trying to develop the most durable, but at the same time inexpensive in the manufacture of artificial muscles, but so far such developments have not led to a uniquely successful result. Muscles are either very expensive to manufacture or too fragile to use outside of delicate laboratory conditions. Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology managed to create strong muscles from nylon, which costs mere pennies.
The secret of technology lies in the heating of nylon fibers. Such fibers decrease in length when heated, but increase in thickness. At the same time, if one acts on the fiber with heat from a certain side, one can control its contractions and achieve high accuracy of the direction of the force created by such an “improvised muscle”.
True, to create muscles from nylon, scientists had to go for some tricks. For example, the fiber section should be not round, but square, in order to better heat it from a specific side and precise control over movements. In this case, the heat source can be any: electrical resistance, chemical reaction, and even a laser. Nylon fibers are surprisingly durable and resistant to external influences, which scientists have proven by reducing them under the influence of heat for 100,000 cycles with a frequency of up to 17 times per second.
This seemingly simple discovery can lead to a kind of revolution in various areas of industry. Just imagine clothes that can automatically adjust your size to your body, or a car whose interior design will change right before your eyes. Huge potential in discovery in the field of medicine and robotics. Perhaps one day the nylon muscles will be used in the manufacture of anthropomorphic robots. But today, of course, this is just laboratory research, and when technology goes beyond the walls of MIT, we cannot know.
The article is based on materials .
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