McKibben artificial muscle can be in accordance with the Hill skeletal muscle model

McKibben pneumatic artificial muscle shows a great functional analogy with skeletal muscle. To better characterize this dynamic analogous behavior, we analyze in what conditions McKibben muscle can be applied in accordance with the fundamental Hill muscle model. We show that the choice of an adequate textile sheath can lead to a velocity-tension curve in conformity with the Hill model equation. We propose to relate this phenomenon to specific textile yarn hydrodynamic friction. In terms of control we emphasize the interest of this agreement with the Hill model for giving the artificial muscle a dynamic behaviour more naturally adapted to load variations