Artificial muscles for underwater soft robotic system

Abstract

Soft actuators, often also referred as artificial muscles, have been intensively developed in recent decades for constructing novel soft robots and machines. Diverse materials and structures have been designed and fabricated to exhibit various actuating behaviors. This chapter briefly reviews several representative soft actuators that have been recently widely explored, including pneumatic/hydraulic actuators, electroactive polymers, liquid crystal elastomers, responsive hydrogels, shape memory polymers, twisted fiber artificial muscles, and magneto-active elastomers. Their fabrication, performance, unique features, and modelling are discussed in detail. We also discuss special requirements of soft actuators for underwater soft robotic systems.