Artificial muscles and soft gripping: a review of technologies and applications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a range of artificial muscle and soft gripping technologies for robotic applications. Design/methodology/approach – Following a short introduction, this paper first discusses the role of air muscles and other pneumatic actuation technologies. It then considers electroactive polymer and shape‐memory alloys and finally discusses the prospects for various classes of electrohydrodynamic fluids. Findings – This paper shows that a technologically diverse range of novel actuation techniques exist, or are under development, which can act as artificial muscles and soft grippers. They are based on pneumatics, shape changing materials and electrohydrodynamic fluids and have prospects to impart robots with improved or unique capabilities. Originality/value – The paper provides an insight into developments in artificial muscle and soft gripping technologies. These are expected to play a vital role in future robot generations.