New opportunities in mechatronics and bionics 2 The human arm How can technology be used to contrive a movement device which comes as close as possible to the human model in terms of overall concept, technical design and bionics Airic’s_arm was inspired by nature. Its combination of mechatronics and bionics opens up new opportunities for shaping the future of automated movement. The aim of this project is to gain detailed insights into the design principles of nature and to investigate modes of technical implementation. Although these anatomical and scientific principles have long been familiar, they are yet to find widespread application in technology. Today’s technological world is characterised by high-precision, high-speed, sturdy, reliable long-life components that we can find inall areasof our lives.As a rule, machines carry out theirassigned tasks in detail better than a human could. By the same token, however, there is no machine that can do everything that we can; this is due not merely to human intellect, but also to the enormous versatility of the human body. Unlike the world of construction design, our limbs are not rigid, and the body’s structure is comparatively light,thehuman organismoperates incrediblyefficiently, the body is self-regenerating, and last but not least, the human is a universalist and - equipped with a few tools – can carry out practically any task. With its hand and shoulder joint, the human arm has a total of 64 muscles and 28 bones along with a multitude of receptors for temperature, position, tactile sensation and pain. Thanks to the special structure of its joints, the human body develops astoundinglylargeforcesandscope of movement inalmost every direction. We can grasp objects in a defined manner with our hands and position them with high precision using our arms and shoulders. We are quick to react; a baseball, for example, reaches speeds of up to 150 km/h when thrown. We can grasp objects firmly with our hands and lift loads. In weightlifting, weights of up to 250 kg are raised. All these characteristics are of great interest not only to us, but to the future of robotics; we shall soon be able to make use of them to leave more and more dangerous and hazardous tasks to technology. Airic’s_arm is a robot arm with artificial bones and muscles. A total of 30 muscles move the bone structure which, as with our own arms, consists of ulna and radius, metacarpal and finger bones, a shoulder joint and a shoulder bone-joints that are otherwise not encountered inthis formin the world of technology.Airic’s bones have not grown of their own accord, nor do they automatically heal following a fracture. They were designed on computer and are grown in a three-dimensional polyamide structure using a stateof-the-art laser sintering process. The muscles, a product of Festo, are already widely found in industrial application under the name ofFluidic Muscles.These are tubes of elastomer reinforced with aramide fibres. When a Fluidic Muscle is filled with compressed air, its diameter increases and it is simultaneously shortened. This artificial muscle has immense starting power, and its dynamic behaviouris similar to that of ahumanmuscle.Its greatest advantage over its human counterpart is that when contracted, it requires no further supply of energy. A weight once lifted can thus be held in any position indefinitely by Airic’s_arm. With this technology, the forces applied and the muscle’s rigidity can be precisely meteX-ray images of Airic’s_arm
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