Dielectric Elastomer Artificial Muscle: Materials Innovations and Device Explorations.

ConspectusCreating an artificial muscle has been one of the grand challenges of science and engineering. The invention of such a flexible, versatile, and power efficient actuator opens the gate for a new generation of lightweight, highly efficient, and multifunctional robotics. Many current artificial muscle technologies enable low-power mobile actuators, robots that mimic efficient and natural forms of motion, autonomous robots and sensors, and lightweight wearable technologies. They also have serious applications in biomedical devices, where biocompatibility, from a chemical, flexibility, and force perspective, is crucial. It remains unknown which material will ultimately form the ideal artificial muscle. Anything from shape memory alloys (SMAs) to pneumatics to electroactive polymers (EAPs) realize core aspects of the artificial muscle goal. Among them, EAPs most resemble their biological counterparts, and they encompass both ion-infusion and electric field based actuation mechanisms. Some of the most ...