The development of artificial muscles has focused on a high energy–weight ratio and soft structures, however, little work has been done towards muscle-like contraction behaviors. This unfortunately leads to a lack of comfort and safety, which is especially important for robotic applications like orthotics and exoskeletons. In this paper, we propose a contraction control method for a tendon-sheath artificial muscle to contract and relax like biological muscles. In view of the nonlinear transmission characteristics of the tendon-sheath artificial muscle, a transmission model is established and its accuracy is verified through experiments. A muscle-like contraction control method is then proposed based on the transmission model and the Hill-type muscle model. Through this method, the contraction force of the tendon-sheath artificial muscle can be adjusted according to the output displacement and velocity of the tendon-sheath mechanism estimated by the transmission model. Isometric contraction and quick-release experiments are then conducted. The experimental results demonstrate that this control method allows the tendon-sheath artificial muscle to contract with specific muscle-like force–length and force–velocity properties.

人造肌肉的发展集中在高能量重量比和柔软的结构上，然而，对类似肌肉的收缩行为的研究很少。不幸的是，这导致缺乏舒适性和安全性，这对于矫形器和外骨骼等机器人应用尤其重要。在本文中，我们提出了一种腱鞘人工肌肉像生物肌肉一样收缩和放松的收缩控制方法。针对腱鞘人工肌肉的非线性传输特性，建立了传输模型，并通过实验验证了其准确性。然后基于传输模型和希尔型肌肉模型提出了肌肉样收缩控制方法。通过这种方法，腱鞘人工肌肉的收缩力可以根据传递模型估计的腱鞘机构的输出位移和速度进行调节。然后进行等长收缩和快速释放实验。实验结果表明，这种控制方法允许腱鞘人造肌肉以特定的类似肌肉的力-长度和力-速度特性收缩。