Data-driven Actuator Selection for Artificial Muscle-Powered Robots

Even though artificial muscles have gained popularity due to their compliant, flexible and compact properties, there currently does not exist an easy way of making informed decisions on the appropriate actuation strategy when designing a muscle-powered robot; thus limiting the transition of such technologies into broader applications. What’s more, when a new muscle actuation technology is developed, it is difficult to compare it against existing robot muscles. To accelerate the development of artificial muscle applications, we propose a data-driven approach for robot muscle actuator selection using Support Vector Machines (SVM). This first-of-its-kind method gives users insight into which actuators fit their specific needs and actuation performance criteria, making it possible for researchers and engineers with little to no prior knowledge of artificial muscles to focus on application design. It also provides a platform to benchmark existing, new or yet-to-be discovered artificial muscle technologies. We test our method on unseen existing robot muscle designs to prove its usability on real-world applications. We provide an open-access, web-searchable interface for easy access to our models that will additionally allow for the continuous contribution of new actuator data from groups around the world to enhance and expand these models.