Autonomous self-healing pneumatic McKibben muscle based on a new hydrogel material.

In this paper we present a hydrogel with self-healing capabilities and its application for the development of a Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM). Unlike other hydrogels, our material can be used outside of aqueous environments and does not need any external stimulus to self-heal, which makes it an interesting alternative for the manufacturing of soft robots. First, the mechanical properties of the hydrogel and its self-healing ability are analyzed. Second, we present the development of a pneumatic muscle based on the classic McKibben design but including our material. Finally, we analyze the capabilities of our self-repairing muscles before and after being punctured. The results show a good performance of our actuators even after low healing periods (10 minutes).