Pneumatic Muscle Actuators

Dear Colleagues,

Pneumatic muscle actuators were initially conceived only for bioengineering applications. Over time, several new types have also been proposed for industrial applications, keeping some interesting characteristics unchanged: high strength/mass ratio, possibility of realization with easily available materials, ease of realization, low cost, ease of introduction into mechanical devices thanks to high tolerances assembly, respect for the environment and compliance, very useful for devices that must interact with humans.

The behavior of pneumatic muscles is strongly nonlinear due to large deformations and nonlinear characteristics of the materials they are made of. For this reason, it is difficult to predict their behavior, and many of the efforts of researchers in the past have been directed toward modeling in order to obtain tools for the sizing, prediction of functioning, life duration, and control of pneumatic muscles.

The recent development of soft actuators has led to a renewed interest of researchers in pneumatic muscles.

This Special Issue aims to collect all the most innovative contributions on the theme of pneumatic muscles and soft actuators on topics including, but not limited to, new types of actuators, new realization technologies, new realization materials, new applications, and new models for sizing, control, for the forecast of operation, and for fatigue life duration.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Machines.

Dr. Francesco Durante
Dr. Pierluigi Beomonte Zobel
Dr. Michele Gabrio Antonelli
Guest Editors

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