NASA's Invention of the Year Award Goes to Synthetic Muscles

coondoggie writes "It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie: technology that can act like muscle and nerves to expand and contract. The invention has been named the NASA Government Invention of the Year for 2007. 'The Macro-Fiber Composite, or MFC, is made up of ceramic fibers and can be attached to a structure to bend it, reduce vibrations and monitor force. By applying voltage to the MFC, the ceramic fibers change shape to expand or contract and turn the resulting force into a bending or twisting action on the material. MFC technology could also find its way into inflatable space structures can be used for antennas, communication satellites, space station trusses, and solar sail support structures, NASA said.'"

Also an energy generation device

[sweet_petunias_full_]

"By applying voltage to the MFC, the ceramic fibers change shape to expand or contract and turn the resulting force into a bending or twisting action on the material. Likewise, voltage is generated in proportion to the force applied to the MFC material"

That means that you could attach these to trees, swaying skyscrapers, radio towers, etc., and these things would start generating energy just from their natural motion.

Older Than That

[lcreech]

I had the idea of creating synthetic muscles over 25 years ago when pvf2 (polyvinyl fluoride) first came out. It is a piezoelectric plastic that is less fragile than ceramic. And no I didn't patent it since I never got around to it.

Larry C.