Electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators as artificial muscles

Booknews

Reviews the state of the art in the field of electroactive polymers (EAP), or artificial muscles, covering available materials, analytical models, processing techniques, characterization methods, and applications. Overviews various EAP materials and their potentials, then describes the mechanism of muscle operation and their behavior as actuators. Covers fundamentals in computation chemistry and nonlinear electromechanical analysis necessary for understanding EAP actuators, and discusses modeling methods and new techniques for measuring and characterizing EAP material properties. Applications discussed include biologically inspired robots, and applications in the entertainment industry. Useful as a reference and as a technology user's guide. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)