Pneumatic Artificial Muscles consist of a bladder surrounded by a braided mesh which contracts longitudinally and expands radially as the bladder inflates, thereby exerting a tensile force in the longitudinal direction. Pairing these muscles in antagonistic configurations like the human bicep and tricep provides a lightweight and compliant means of actuating robotic limbs that is also safe for human interaction.

My Masters thesis involved designing and constructing an experimental rig and data acquisition system to compare the performance of the Sleeved Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (SPAM) to the conventional McKibben Artificial Muscle. I proved that the SPAM responds 24% faster, features greater resilience to disturbances with 10 times lower settling times, and moves through a greater angular range even while lifting 3.5 times the load.