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Review

Wearable Actuators: An Overview

by
Yu Chen
1,
Yiduo Yang
1,
Mengjiao Li
2,
Erdong Chen
2,
Weilei Mu
2,
Rosie Fisher
1 and
Rong Yin
1,*
1
Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science, Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
2
College of Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Textiles 2021, 1(2), 283-321; https://doi.org/10.3390/textiles1020015
Submission received: 1 June 2021 / Revised: 2 August 2021 / Accepted: 20 August 2021 / Published: 24 August 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Research Trends for Textiles)
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Abstract

The booming wearable market and recent advances in material science has led to the rapid development of the various wearable sensors, actuators, and devices that can be worn, embedded in fabric, accessorized, or tattooed directly onto the skin. Wearable actuators, a subcategory of wearable technology, have attracted enormous interest from researchers in various disciplines and many wearable actuators and devices have been developed in the past few decades to assist and improve people’s everyday lives. In this paper, we review the actuation mechanisms, structures, applications, and limitations of recently developed wearable actuators including pneumatic and hydraulic actuators, shape memory alloys and polymers, thermal and hygroscopic materials, dielectric elastomers, ionic and conducting polymers, piezoelectric actuators, electromagnetic actuators, liquid crystal elastomers, etc. Examples of recent applications such as wearable soft robots, haptic devices, and personal thermal regulation textiles are highlighted. Finally, we point out the current bottleneck and suggest the prospective future research directions for wearable actuators.
Keywords: smart textiles; wearable; fiber actuators; soft exoskeleton; haptic action smart textiles; wearable; fiber actuators; soft exoskeleton; haptic action

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MDPI and ACS Style

Chen, Y.; Yang, Y.; Li, M.; Chen, E.; Mu, W.; Fisher, R.; Yin, R. Wearable Actuators: An Overview. Textiles 2021, 1, 283-321. https://doi.org/10.3390/textiles1020015

AMA Style

Chen Y, Yang Y, Li M, Chen E, Mu W, Fisher R, Yin R. Wearable Actuators: An Overview. Textiles. 2021; 1(2):283-321. https://doi.org/10.3390/textiles1020015

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chen, Yu, Yiduo Yang, Mengjiao Li, Erdong Chen, Weilei Mu, Rosie Fisher, and Rong Yin. 2021. "Wearable Actuators: An Overview" Textiles 1, no. 2: 283-321. https://doi.org/10.3390/textiles1020015

APA Style

Chen, Y., Yang, Y., Li, M., Chen, E., Mu, W., Fisher, R., & Yin, R. (2021). Wearable Actuators: An Overview. Textiles, 1(2), 283-321. https://doi.org/10.3390/textiles1020015

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