Pneumatic artificial muscles conventional electric motors and hydraulic cylinders. Pneumatic artificial muscles Pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) are contractile or extensional devices operated by pressurized air filling a pneumatic bladder. In an approximation of human muscles, PAMs are usually grouped in pairs: one agonist and one antagonist. PAMs were first developed (under the name of "McKibben Artificial Muscles") in the 1950s for use in artificial limbs. The Bridgestone rubber company (Japan) commercialized the idea in the 1980s under the name of Rubbertuators. The retraction strength of the PAM is limited by the sum total strength of individual fibers in the woven shell. The exertion
Human thermal environments Human thermal environments Human Thermal Environments is a branch of the discipline Ergonomics, concerned with the thermal comfort (i.e. whether a person feels too cold, hot, 'sticky' etc.) of human beings in any, but especially in their working environment. Convective, conductive, radiative and insulating properties of the human body and the environment in which it finds itself are all variables whose effects are closely considered in this science. The aim of the discipline is to manipulate these variables in the environment and/or the clothing of the individual to achieve 'thermal comfort', the state in which the individual is content with