Home BEAM family tree Sitter Squirmer Slider Crawler Jumper Roller Walker 1 motor 2 motors 3 motors 4 motors 5 motors 6 motors 8 motors 12 motors Muscle wire Gallery Swimmer Flier Climber   The BEAM Bestiary is a BEAM Reference Library site.		"Muscle wire" walkers BEAM walkers using Muscle wire Muscle wire (Nitinol, a nickle - titanium alloy) has been used in a number of experimental robots to date. These wires shorten by 3-5% when heated to 70°C, and this contraction can be used to move limbs. Muscle wire has a number of advantages for use in actuators -- small size, light weight, a very high strength-to-weight ratio, precise control, AC or DC activation, long life, and direct linear action. Muscle wire has seen only limited use in BEAMbots to date because of the relatively high power levels required to make it contract -- about 250-300 mA of current at 3V (this is low power for larger, "traditional," robots -- but high power for BEAMbots).
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