functional surrogates of natural muscles, aimed at mimicking performances of biological actuation machines. EAP are currently being developed and significantly studied as possible “ artificial muscles ”, i.e. EAP offer the potential for performance exceed-ing other smart materials, while retaining the cost and versatility inherent in polymer materials. While these technologies have addressed niche applications and continue to make incremental improve-ments, newer emerging electromechanical transduction technologies, based on so-called electroactive polymers (EAP), have gained a considerable attention. These materials, often termed “ smart ” or “ intelligent ”, include improved piezoelectrics and magnetostrictive or shape-memory materials. The perceived need for improved transducer performance, which has progressively emerged in the last few decades, has drawn considerable efforts for the develop-ment of devices relying on materials with intrinsic transduction properties. New electromechanical transducers with high energy output, high strains, high mechanical compliance, lightweight, damage-tolerance and low cost can enable needed advances in a variety of applications, such as robotics, automation and biomedical devices.
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