Perception-Actuation Integrated Artificial Muscle Fibers: From Structural Design to Applications

Artificial muscle fibers have attracted widespread attention and demonstrated great potential for applications in smart robots, wearable electronics, biomedicine, etc. In particular, lightweight, flexible, and compact perception-actuation integrated artificial muscle fibers have become a hot research topic since they are expected to be widely used in some complex intelligent structures and systems to replace traditional mechanical sensing and actuating units, thereby enabling weight reduction of the entire device. Mimicking the mammalian neuromuscular system, the functionally integrated artificial muscle fibers can accurately perceive changes in the external environment and actuate accordingly. However, owing to the limitations of materials, structures, and control systems, the comprehensive performance of perception-actuation integrated artificial muscle fibers is far inferior to that of the natural neuromuscular system. Specifically, interface problems and lack of advanced synergy between sensing and actuating units result in hysteresis in perception and self-sensing signals. Therefore, it is highly necessary to summarize the research field of perception-actuation integrated artificial muscle fibers and gain insights into the impact of structural design on perception and actuation performance to guide their rapid development in the future. In this Account, we systematically summarize the recent advances in perception-actuation integrated artificial muscle fiber. First, we focus on the advances in the materials and structures of artificial muscle fibers for synergistic effects on perception and actuation functions. Then, we discuss the effects of the response stimulus type of artificial muscle fibers on the control system and how to regulate the structure of the fibers to reduce the complexity of the control system. Finally, application scenarios, existing challenges, and potential solutions are proposed. We expect that this Account will contribute to the further development of the perception-actuation integrated artificial muscle fibers, thereby promoting their real-world applications.