Professorial lecture examines artificial muscles

Aug 01, 2006

The fifth in the University of Wollongong's series of Professorial Lectures for 2006 examined artificial muscles, how they work and their many applications.

Professor Geoff Spinks from the Faculty of Engineering delivered the lecture and spoke about smart materials that respond by changing in size when stimulated. He also discussed how nanotechnology is improving their performance.

“Most commonly the stimulus is by an electrical voltage,” he said. “These materials have applications in many areas including robotics, medical devices and micro-machines.”

Professor Spinks explained to his audience how his research has been dedicated to making artificial muscles work better and how he hopes to one day produce an artificial muscle that works as well as natural muscle.

“Since natural muscle works as a system of billions of co-ordinated nano-scale machines, we are looking to nano-scale materials to produce better artificial muscles,” said Professor Spinks.

The 'Professorial Lecture Series' is an opportunity to hear about the research work and achievements of academic staff members who have either been promoted to Professorial level or are recent appointments to the University.

General and academic staff are most welcome to attend these lunchtime lectures.

The next lecture will be presented by Professor Philip Ogunbona from the Faculty of Informatics who will give an overview of digital imaging– capture, storage, annotation and retrieval.