DOI: 10.1126/science.1246906 ISSN:

Artificial Muscles from Fishing Line and Sewing Thread

Carter S. Haines, Márcio D. Lima, Na Li, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Javad Foroughi, John D. W. Madden, Shi Hyeong Kim, Shaoli Fang, Mônica Jung de Andrade, Fatma Göktepe, Özer Göktepe, Seyed M. Mirvakili, Sina Naficy, Xavier Lepró, Jiyoung Oh, Mikhail E. Kozlov, Seon Jeong Kim, Xiuru Xu, Benjamin J. Swedlove, Gordon G. Wallace, Ray H. Baughman
  • Multidisciplinary
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Toward an Artificial Muscle

In designing materials for artificial muscles, the goals are to find those that will combine high strokes, high efficiency, long cycle life, low hysteresis, and low cost. Now, Haines et al. (p. 868 ; see the Perspective by Yuan and Poulin ) show that this is possible. Twisting high-strength, readily available polymer fibers, such as those used for fishing lines or sewing thread, to the point where they coil up, allowed construction of highly efficient actuators that could be triggered by a number of stimuli.

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