Mechanics of Soft and Smart Actuators

This book provides a comprehensive and updated insight into soft and smart actuators, one of the most promising technologies in recent years. This book consists of five chapters, covering interdisciplinary study of mechanics, robotics and materials science of soft and smart actuators. Readers will find detailed and useful information about materials, working principles, modeling methods and potential applications of soft and smart actuators. This book provides a concise introduction on mechanically responsive materials such as polymers, dielectric elastomers, hydrogels and shape memory polymers. Based on continuum mechanics, this book also discusses the multi-physics coupling descriptions, such as electro-, chemo-, and thermo-mechanical coupling, as well as offering detailed modeling examples. This book also makes generous use of color figures, diagrams, and photographs to provide descriptions of the mechanism and applications of soft and smart actuators. With a comprehensive and timely review of the most recent research on the mechanics of soft and smart actuators, this book is useful to a wide readership in the fields of mechanics, robotics engineering and materials science.