Ive worked for couple of years in industrial automation fields. Pneumatic actuators are quite common and widely used in industrial robots, as there's always a regulated supply of pressure air available. Correct me if im wrong, but hobby roboticist do not use pneumatics because:
1 ) actuators are expensive 2 ) off-the shelf compressed air "batteries" do not existFirst point can be solved with supply and demand laws, plus IMO Shadow's air muscles are already quite a leap forward in price, and power-to-weight ratio ( also important ). For those who havent seen em yet, thats a telltale picture
-kert