[PSUBS-MAILIST] Air Muscle

[hank pronk]

Alan,
I also just had a look on youtube,  that is pretty cool.  I see they took the bounce out by encasing the bag in a stretchy sock.  
Hank



On Thursday, January 23, 2014 6:26:16 AM, hank pronk <hanker_20032000 at yahoo.ca> wrote:
  
Alan,
I could not find the air muscle area in the site.  I assume it is the same idea as an air bag in truck suspension.  There are two problems with using air bags in underwater service.  You could only use the bag at one depth at a time because the air would expand or compress at different depths.  You could deflate the bag then change depth and start over.  In an arm application the bag would be erratic to operate, it would have a bounce to it.  Mind you the deeper you went the less bounce because there would be more resistance.  The bag system would be good for leak resistance, but what do you do with the return air.  You would have to dump it overboard.  I did look at air powering an arm, both direct air to cylinder and air over hydraulic.  My uneducated conclusion was, to complicated and not much duration.  My log salvage rov had an air powered grapple.  We did that for speed and environmental issues.  We had a constant air supply to the rov
 though.
Hank



On Thursday, January 23, 2014 3:31:33 AM, Alan James <alanlindsayjames at yahoo.com> wrote:
  
Hi Psubbers,
was looking through a robotics book & came across an actuator called an "air muscle".
It's basically a balloon with attachments on either end that contracts  when pressurized with air. 
Here is an instructable on how to make one.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-air-muscles!/?ALLSTEPS

They are a cheap alternative to a pneumatic cylinder & can generate more lifting force
in the 3&1/2 to 6 bar range.
As we all carry compressed air, I thought there may be some application that it could be
useful for, such as opening the ballast valves remotely or releasing emergency buoys etc.
They are used on robotic arms, so perhaps a manipulator could be, or has been made with them.
Anybody had any experience with them??? I also found them under fluidic muscle.
Alan



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