Soft Actuators

An introduction in the field of soft actuators and soft robotics followed by various application areas of soft actuators will be covered here. A detailed survey on materials in use and fabrication methodologies for soft actuators will be given. Furthermore, a range of stimuli for actuation, deformation capabilities, motion complexities and varied multifunctionality in the soft actuators will be discussed.<br/><br/>Bio-inspired structures and materials<br/><br/>The most recent research on polymer-based bio-inspired structures and materials will be presented. The focus will be hybrid and multimaterial systems inspired by plants, for which the arrangement of different materials and their structure-function relations will be discussed. Finally, plant inspired movements in such artificial systems and their applications will be covered in this topic.<br/><br/>Stimuli-sensitive material for actuators, e.g., shape-memory polymers, liquid crystalline elastomers<br/><br/>Fundamentals of stimuli-sensitive materials and how the shape-memory effect or actuation can be utilized to fabricate bioinspired actuators will be covered in this topic. Network architectures of shape-memory polymers and liquid crystalline elastomers, understanding of various types of shape-memory effects and actuation, parameters or factors influencing the performance of actuators and their characterization methods will be discussed.<br/><br/>Polymer processing technologies<br/><br/>The topic will cover the introduction into various conventional polymer processing such as extrusion, injection or compression molding. An introduction into 3D printing will also be the part of this topic and later the use of various technologies in the fabrication of actuators will be elaborated. The usage and various product ranges from different processing techniques will also be discussed.