Houston university engineer receives grant to develop artifi

HOUSTON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- An engineer from the University of Houston has received financial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop artificial muscles and tendons.

According to a public news release on Thursday by the university in Texas of the United States, Zheng Chen, Bill D. Cook assistant professor of mechanical engineering, will use the half-million-U.S.-dollar CAREER award to develop artificial muscles and tendons for dexterous, compliant and affordable prostheses.

Chen said the resulting prosthetics would be more comfortable and work more efficiently than current models, which involve motorized metallic parts.

Chen, director of the Bio-inspired Robotics and Controls Lab at the Cullen College of Engineering, works with smart materials to devise improved prostheses. The project involves bio-inspired design, fabricating the device and developing a mechanism to control the movement of prosthetic hands, using a material which can be activated by an electrical voltage.

Chen and his colleagues have developed a prototype of artificial muscle and tendon structure. He will use nanotechnology to let the material achieve the necessary performance; it then will be used to construct artificial muscles and tendons.

NSF CAREER awards are granted to promising junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars, and recipients also do educational outreach to promote a better understanding of science and technology.