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Artificial Sarcomere

DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF SARCOMERE-LIKE ELECTROMAGNETIC ACTUATOR PROTOTYPE FOR ANTHROPOMORPHIC HAND

Sarcomere (Fig 1) is the basic unit of striated muscle tissue. Skeletal muscles are composed of tubular muscle cells (myocytes called muscle fibres) which are formed in a process known as myogenesis. Muscle fibers are composed of tubular myofibrils. Myofibrils are composed of repeating sections of sarcomeres, which appear under the microscope as dark and light bands. Sarcomeres are composed of long, fibrous proteins as filaments that slide past each other when a muscle contracts or relaxes.
Fig 1. Sarcomere
A muscle fibre from a biceps muscle may contain 100,000 sarcomeres. The sarcomeres are what give skeletal and cardiac muscles their striated appearance.

An Electromagnetic actuator is designed to imitate this mechanism of sarcomeres. This artificial sarcomere consists of three parts. Two alpha segments and one zeta segments. The structure of an artificial muscles is shown in Fig 2.

Fig 2. Structure of Artificial Sarcomere
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          Fig 3. shows the structure of an artificial muscle of sarcomeres. This muscle imitates the motion of natural sarcomeres. Such multiple actuators together form an artificial muscle. The advantage of such construction is that in case of failure of any part of the actuator, the rest of the actuators can compensate it. Hence, the machine continues to work without the need to stop for maintenance.
Fig 3. Artificial muscle fiber of sarcomeres
Below is the image (Fig 4) of an artificial arm consisting artificial humerus, ulna and radius bone structures of the arm.

Fig 4. Artificial arm

Fig 5. Artificial Arm - Exploded View
Fig 6. Artificial Sarcomere

Fig 7. Artificial Sarcomere Extended

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