EUROMECH2022 Colloquium on Mechanics of Soft Active Polymers

With the rapid development of novel technologies in the area of robotics, smart textiles (including wearable sensors), wireless sensors networks and Internet of Things, autonomous systems, medical sensors and devices, additive manufacturing and assistive technologies, an unprecedented need has been experienced for flexible and versatile materials, capable of combining various chemical, electrical and mechanical properties. Soft Active Polymers (SAPs) represent such a group of materials that is distinctly characterised by their ability to respond to external stimuli such as mechanical, electrical or magnetic fields, temperature or humidity, biological or chemical processes and so on. Moreover, SAPs possess a number of remarkable properties like flexibility and softness, large deformability and conformability, biocompatibility, sensitivity and responsiveness, low weight and scalability (from macro to micro/nano scale), which make these materials superior and cost-effective in certain applications compared to other materials. In particular, these features make them highly suitable as building materials for actuators, sensors, energy harvesters or all-in-one sophisticated soft robots, and consequently appropriate for a variety of existing and emerging applications. However, their mechanical properties like viscoelasticity and hyperelasticity (with strain that can attain 300 to 700%), as well hysteresis, creep and relaxation strongly effect other coupled material properties, among which the dielectric permittivity, energy losses and reaction time.

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