Biologically Accurate Artificial Muscles

Advanced robotics research has led to bots that are stronger and faster than humans, but their pneumatic power sources hardly look human-like -- now, with new 'multifilament' technology, the Suzumori Endo Laboratory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology has successfully created functional robotic muscles that look and act like biological ones.

Just like the sinews that make up human muscles, the Suzumori Endo Lab's robotic muscles use bundles of multifilaments that meet at "tendons" along a biologically accurate skeleton's joints. These multifilaments contract and relax when exposed to an electrical current in the same way that human muscles flex and release in response to neurological impulses.

The lab's technology still has a long way to go, however. At present, the robotic muscles are not strong enough to support a skeleton without an "auxiliary walking instrument", and their movement is far slower and more deliberate than actual human movement. So the robot apocalypse can be delayed, at least for the time being.