MIT researchers have proposed a method of making robotic muscles 1,000 times faster than human muscles, with virtually no extra energy demands and the added bonus of a simpler design.

The artificial muscles would be achieved by actuating conjugated polymers on command by sending charges to specific locations in the polymer chain in the form of solitons (charge density waves) that are activated by shining a light of a particular frequency on the conducting polymer.

This study appears in the Nov. 4 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.

Source: MIT news release