Professorial Lecture Series

"Working Out with Artificial Muscles "
Professor Geoff Spinks

Wednesday 26th July 2006 (12:30-1:30pm), Building 14.G01

"Artificial muscles are a type of smart material that responds by changing its size when stimulated.  Most commonly the stimulus is by an electrical voltage.  These materials have applications in many areas including robotics, medical devices and micro-machines.
My research has been dedicated to making the artificial muscles work better and hopefully 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.
This talk, as part of the Professorial Lecture Series, will describe how artificial muscles work, where they might be used and how nanotechnology is improving their performance."

News Article: http://media.uow.edu.au/news/2006/0801c/index.html