State of the Art, Insights and Perspectives for Bio-Inspired Liquid Crystal Elastomer Soft Actuators

After 30 years of development, liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) biomimetic soft robots have been engineered to possess the capability to mimic and surpass the locomotion of soft organisms. However, most of the current reviews on LCEs are focused on their material/alignment design, fabrication technologies, actuation mechanisms, and applications. The latest research progress of biomimetic LCE soft actuators is systematically reviewed here from a novel perspective of material-structure-function interrelationship, which includes plant-inspired biomimetic shape-morphing of LCEs, animal-inspired biomimetic locomotion of LCEs, and bionic intelligent color-changing of LCEs. In addition, the potential application prospects and challenges of bio-inspired LCE soft actuators are discussed, where further in-depth research is required. Directions and valuable insights are provided for subsequent research efforts. This paper offers an inspiring and critical overview of the significant progress in the field of smart biomimetic LCE soft robotics and provides an available guide for researchers who are considering entering the exciting domain of LCE soft actuators.