Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

This Artificial Muscle Make Robots 8 Times More Powerful Than Human Muscle

Imagine wearing a glove that makes lifting heavy objects easier or a lightweight robotic suit that helps people regain movement after an injury. These futuristic ideas depend on one important technology: artificial muscles. Scientists around the world have been working to create materials that can move like real muscles while remaining lightweight, flexible, and energy-efficient.

Now, researchers led by Maki Hiraoka have developed a new type of coiled fibre actuator that could bring these technologies much closer to everyday use. Their design uses a common plastic material called linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and delivers impressive performance while operating at much lower temperatures than previous fibre actuators.

The new invention could lead to more practical wearable devices, soft robots, medical equipment, and assistive technologies.

What Is a Fibre Actuator?

A fibre actuator is a special material that behaves somewhat like a muscle. When heated or electrically powered, it contracts, expands, or twists to produce movement.

Unlike traditional electric motors, fibre actuators are:

  • Lightweight

  • Flexible

  • Easy to integrate into fabrics

  • Suitable for wearable technology

  • Quiet during operation

Because of these advantages, researchers believe fibre actuators could become the foundation of future soft robotics and wearable assistive devices.

However, one major challenge has limited their widespread use.

The Problem with Earlier Artificial Muscles

Many existing coiled fibre actuators require high temperatures to operate effectively.

High operating temperatures create several problems:

  • They consume large amounts of electricity.

  • They can damage clothing and wearable fabrics.

  • They reduce user comfort.

  • They increase safety concerns.

  • They are harder to integrate into soft robotic systems.

For wearable devices, lower operating temperatures are extremely important because the actuator must work safely while remaining close to the human body.

A New Material Makes the Difference

The research team solved this problem by creating their actuator from highly drawn hard LLDPE fibres.

LLDPE is already widely used because it is:

  • Strong

  • Flexible

  • Lightweight

  • Inexpensive

  • Easy to manufacture

The researchers twisted these fibres into compact coils, creating an actuator capable of producing large movement with surprisingly little energy.

Operates at Only 60°C

One of the biggest achievements of this new actuator is its low operating temperature.

Instead of requiring extremely high heat, it begins operating at temperatures as low as 60°C.

This offers several important benefits:

  • Lower energy consumption

  • Greater safety

  • Better compatibility with wearable fabrics

  • Longer material life

  • Easier integration into soft robotic systems

Since ordinary textiles can tolerate these temperatures, the actuator can be built directly into clothing without causing thermal damage.

Uses Much Less Power

Energy efficiency is another major improvement.

The researchers found that their actuator requires only 20% of the electrical power used by earlier coiled fibre actuators while producing the same mechanical stress of 20 megapascals (MPa) at 10% strain.

In simple terms, this means the actuator performs similar work while using about 80% less energy.

For battery-powered wearable devices, this could significantly increase operating time while reducing battery size and weight.

More Powerful Than Human Muscle

Perhaps the most exciting result is the actuator's remarkable performance.

At relatively low temperatures, it achieved:

  • 1600 watts per kilogram of specific power

  • 69 MPa tensile stress

  • 2% work efficiency

To understand how impressive this is, the researchers compared it with human skeletal muscle.

The actuator produces:

  • Around 8 times more specific power

  • About 230 times greater tensile stress

This does not mean it is stronger than the human body in every way. Human muscles remain far more efficient, adaptable, and capable of continuous movement. However, these numbers show that the artificial fibre can generate an exceptionally large amount of force for its size and weight.

Large Movement Despite a Compact Design

Another remarkable feature is how much the actuator can move.

When heated from 30°C to 90°C, the fibre generated strains as high as 23%.

Strain refers to how much the material changes length during movement.

Achieving such a large strain is especially impressive because the fibre is tightly coiled into a compact shape. Normally, compact actuators sacrifice movement for strength, but this design manages to provide both.

This combination of compact size and large motion makes it highly attractive for wearable technologies where space is limited.

How Does It Work?

Instead of using bulky external heaters, the actuator operates through electrical resistance heating.

When electricity flows through the system, the fibre warms up and contracts, producing movement.

This approach offers several advantages:

  • Fast response

  • Simple electrical control

  • Easy integration into wearable electronics

  • Reduced mechanical complexity

Since it only requires moderate heating, it consumes much less energy than previous designs.

Safe for Clothing and Wearable Devices

Because the actuator works at relatively low temperatures, it can be combined with many common materials used in wearable technology.

These include:

  • Regular fabrics

  • Stretchable conductive elastomers

  • Flexible electronic components

Previous actuators often generated enough heat to damage surrounding materials.

The new LLDPE actuator avoids this problem, making it much easier to create comfortable wearable devices.

Understanding the Science Behind the Performance

The researchers also investigated why the material performs so well.

Using nanostructural analysis, they discovered that tiny crystal structures inside the drawn LLDPE fibres are connected only by weak bridges.

These weak connections allow the fibres to twist easily into compact helical coils during manufacturing.

Later, when heated, these structures deform efficiently, allowing the actuator to generate large movement while using relatively little energy.

This microscopic structure is one of the key reasons for the actuator's excellent performance.

Possible Future Applications

This technology could support many exciting future innovations.

Some possible applications include:

  • Soft robotic hands

  • Medical rehabilitation devices

  • Power-assisted gloves

  • Smart clothing

  • Wearable exoskeletons

  • Industrial assistive suits

  • Flexible robotic systems

  • Human motion assistance

One demonstration already showed the actuator working inside a power-assisted glove.

Although still at an early stage, the researchers believe future versions can become even better through improved thermal insulation and more advanced textile designs.

Challenges Still Ahead

Despite the promising results, more work remains before these actuators appear in commercial products.

Researchers still need to improve:

  • Long-term durability

  • Repeated heating and cooling performance

  • Large-scale manufacturing

  • Overall system efficiency

  • Integration with complete wearable electronics

These challenges are common for emerging wearable technologies and are expected to improve with continued research.

A Step Toward Smarter Wearable Robotics

The new coiled LLDPE fibre actuator represents an important advance in artificial muscle technology.

By combining low operating temperatures, low energy consumption, high power output, and large movement, it overcomes several major limitations of previous fibre actuators.

Its ability to operate safely with ordinary fabrics makes it especially attractive for wearable robotics, assistive clothing, and medical devices. As researchers continue refining the design, this technology could help create the next generation of lightweight robotic wearables that are more comfortable, more efficient, and practical for everyday life.

While commercial products may still be some years away, this research demonstrates that powerful artificial muscles no longer need extreme temperatures or high energy consumption. Instead, they can be built from simple polymer fibres and integrated into wearable systems, bringing the vision of smart robotic clothing one step closer to reality.

Reference: Hiraoka, M., Nakamura, K., Arase, H. et al. Power-efficient low-temperature woven coiled fibre actuator for wearable applications. Sci Rep 6, 36358 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36358

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

A New Type of Wormhole Could Slowly Become Stable Over Time, Scientists Suggest

For many years, wormholes have captured the imagination of scientists and science fiction fans. They are often shown as magical tunnels through space that can connect two faraway places in the universe. If wormholes really exist, they could one day make it possible to travel huge distances in a very short time. But there is one big problem—no one has ever found a real wormhole. They remain only theoretical objects predicted by the mathematics of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Even though they have never been observed, physicists continue studying them because they help us understand the limits of gravity and spacetime. Now, researchers Ditta and Channuie have proposed a new model of a time-dependent traversable wormhole . Unlike many earlier models, their wormhole is not completely still. Instead, it changes with time because energy flows through it. As this flow slowly fades away, the wormhole naturally becomes stable. Their study offers a new and simple way to understan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more