A Review of Ionic Polymeric Soft Actuators and Sensors

Abstract

Abstract This article reviews properties and characteristics of soft ionic polymer–metal nanocomposites as soft biomimetic multifunctional distributed robotic materials, soft actuators, soft sensors, soft transducers and energy harvesters, and artificial muscles. After presenting some fundamental properties of biomimetic distributed nanosensing and nanoactuation of ionic polymer–metal composites, the discussion extends to some recent advances in manufacturing techniques, 3D fabrication of these soft actuators and sensors and some recent modeling and simulations, sensing and transduction, and product development. The relationships between the properties and their connection to the characteristics of soft actuators and sensors are also discussed.