Fishing Lines and Threads Used to Spin Powerful Artificial Muscles [Video]

Researchers have created artificial muscles using fishing lines and sewing threads. They say that the new type of muscle is 100 times stronger than the real thing and can be used in prosthetics, medical devices and robots.

The artificial muscle was created by researchers at the University of British Columbia, UT Dallas and colleagues. The artificial muscle is several times stronger than human or animal muscles of the same size, according to the team.

Yes, the ultra-strong artificial muscles can help build an exoskeleton, which can provide super-human strength.

"In terms of the strength and power of the artificial muscle, we found that it can quickly lift weights 100 times heavier than a same-sized human muscle can, in a single contraction," said John Madden at UBC, according to a news release. "It also has a higher power output for its weight than that of an automobile combustion engine."

Fishing Lines as Muscles

Threads and fishing lines might not sound as good as carbon nanotubes or liquid alloy, but these common materials can generate tremendous torque if coiled tightly.

To create the artificial muscle, researchers used polyethylene or nylon string, and twisted it repeatedly into a tight coil. The entire length of the twine then coils up on itself. The twine is able to then contract and relax according to variations in temperature. On heating, the coil contracts length-wise and by itself too adding to the muscle power, Popular Mechanics explained.

"At first it seems confusing, but you can think of it kind of like a Chinese finger-trap," Dr. Ray Baughman from UT Dallas told Popular Mechanics. "Expanding the volume of the finger-trap, or heating the coil, actually makes the device shorten."

Also, the twine and thread can be braided or twisted with other kinds of threads to create artificial muscles for different purposes such as giving robots facial expressions, researchers said.

"This definitely gives the entire field an entirely new perspective on how to create artificial muscles," Richard Vaia, a materials scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory told Popular Mechanics. Vaia wasn't a part of the current study.

Last year, Baughman and colleagues published a report about a catapult of ultra-strong artificial muscles made of carbon nanotubes and paraffin wax. This artificial muscle could haul 200 times more weight than a human muscle of the same length. See a video of the catapult, here.

The study was published in the journal Science.