Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: lbjostad@ops.agsci.colostate.edu ()
Subject: Re: Artificial Muscle
Message-ID: <1994Feb4.160537.41980@yuma>
Date: 4 Feb 94 16:05:37 GMT
References: <4FEB94.05292530@nauvax.ucc.nau.edu>
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boone@nauvax.ucc.nau.edu wrote:

:      I am familiar with an assortment of linear actuators that in
: one way or another mimic the action of muscle:

:      solenoids           voice coils    piezo electric
:      rams(hyd & pneu)    nitinol        linear motors
:      various geared configurations using rotary motors

:      Can anyone add to this list?

One posted recently on the net has to do with an Amateur Scientist article
in Scientific American in July 1959.  Lighter flints contain Ce, and their 
attraction to a magnet depends on how hot they are.  By making a ring of 
lighter flints with a magnet near one point of the ring and a heat source 
near another point of the ring, it is possible to make the ring turn.  It
should be possible to make a linear actuator on the same principle. 

Another one that is not really on your list is a clockwork mechanism, with 
an escapement controlling either a pendulum or a coiled spring.

By the way, a good place to look for answers to questions of this sort
is the "children's" book The Way Things Work by David Macaulay.  This 
book is a small classic, with hundreds of good illustrations of different 
mechanisms that work according to different principles.  The only glaring 
omission (understandable, given the target audience), is how the mechanism 
on a gun works.

Lou Bjostad
LBJOSTAD@ceres.agsci.colostate.edu

