Stretchable Electrohydraulic Antagonistic Joint

End-to-end actuator design, fabrication, and antagonistic joint integration for full motion range.

Outcome

I engineered and fabricated a stretchable electrohydraulic artificial muscle system enabling full motion ranges in antagonistic musculoskeletal joints, with a 58% strain increase over matched baselines.

Problem

Antagonistic joints often trade off compact actuator architecture against stroke and compliance. This project extended functional motion range while preserving controllability and soft-robotics compatibility.

System

  • Actuation: stretchable electrohydraulic muscle geometry and pouch architecture
  • Fabrication: thin-film process and repeatable assembly workflow
  • Joint integration: antagonistic pairing and tendon-based integration into musculoskeletal joints
  • Validation: characterization pipeline for strain, range of motion, and repeatability

Contribution

  • End-to-end actuator architecture design
  • Fabrication workflow development and build execution
  • Antagonistic joint integration and mechatronic assembly
  • Characterization experiments, data analysis, and paper preparation

Technical Stack

  • Electrohydraulic artificial muscles
  • Thin-film fabrication
  • Antagonistic joint integration
  • Soft robotics hardware prototyping
  • Experimental characterization and benchmarking

Key Results

  • Achieved a 58% increase in strain over pouch-count-matched baselines
  • Demonstrated full motion ranges in antagonistic musculoskeletal joints
  • Presented at IEEE ICRA (2025)

Media

Video demo: stretchable antagonistic electrohydraulic joint behavior.

Skills

actuator design fabrication thin-film processing antagonistic joints experimental validation system integration