Slideshow: Mini robotic muscles
MIT researchers have found a new way to use shape-memory alloys — metals that change shape when heated — to create small mechanical “muscles” for electronic devices. The mechanical muscles — or actuators — can produce three to six times as much torque as electric motors of similar size but weigh no more than one-20th as much. Previous experimental actuators have used springs made from shape-memory alloys. But the new actuator is easier to manufacture, since it can be cut out of a flat sheet of metal, and to mount, since the sheet can be bolted to a mechanical device’s moving parts. And since only a small section of the new actuator heats up when electrically charged — as opposed to the entire length of the spring — it should dissipate heat more easily and consume less energy.Eduardo Torres-Jara, a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Professor of Computer Science ...