1. Comparison of characteristics of microhydraulic actuators to large-scale motors, micro-actuators, and biological muscle.
Comparison of characteristics of microhydraulic actuators to large-scale motors, micro-actuators, and biological muscle. Microhydraulic actuators presented in this paper are 10 times more powerful than human muscle and are projected to be more powerful than the best motors with further scaling. Piezoelectric bimorph actuators and all thermal actuators are below the 10% efficiency cutoff (29, 30). It is very rare for publications on electroactive polymers and dielectric elastomers to report both power density and efficiency; here, optimistically the best of each is plotted as the limit (7, 31, 32). Muscle efficiency is shown as 20%, which is the approximate conversion factor for metabolic cost to mechanical energy output in exercise machines. Data for USR30 ultrasonic motor were taken from datasheets of Shinsei Corporation, Japan. Prius and Tesla Model S motor specifications were taken from Toyota and Tesla publications for the appropriate electric vehicles.
Jakub Kedzierski, and Eric Holihan Sci. Robotics 2018;3:eaat5643
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