Summary

Each of the first three sections highlighted the main features of piezoelectric, flexible fluidic and shape memory alloy-based actuation. For each, the article first introduces the basic physical principle and its exploitation in actuators for robotics. Elements of dimensioning and integration are available for the designer, as are emblematic examples from the development of robotic device prototypes. The solutions presented are not, of course, equivalent, but rather complementary. To underline this, we can draw on diagrams such as the one in figure