Bionic Engine
2008
Introduction
The Bionic Engine is the soft engine driven by artificial muscles. The engine is covered with white fake fur. The energy source of the engine is high-pressure air. You can feel pulses and a bulge like living organ under the fur when you touch the main body. The motorcycle displayed here is the prototype of expected future products driven by artificial muscle actuators. This prototype product predict the trend of future where the machine and organism merge together.
Fig.1 A motorcycle driven by the Bionic Engine
Mechanical Design
Basic Mechanism
Artificial muscles produce only contraction forces. In order to transform the translation motion to rotation, we employ a lever and an one-way clutch (Fig.2). The module of artificial muscles provides only intermittent force productions. Therefore, we construct an alternating drive systemwith muscle modules located on the sides of the engine.
Fig.2 Mechanisms of the Bionic Engine.
Exhibition
The bicycle driven by the bionic engine was exhibited to the public. The bike placed on the stage with moving state but rear wheel floating. Visitors can accelerate the engine by using control handle. The bike have never been tested with human driver.
Fig.3 Bike with the second version of the bionic engine.
References
Contribution
Ryuma Niiyama organized the project and built all the components.