A state-of-the-art on smart materials actuators over the last decade: control aspects for diverse applications

A comprehensive review of smart materials actuators is presented from control aspects for various applications. The smart materials actuators considered in this work are actively being applied to diverse control systems: magnetorheological elastomer, magnetorheological fluid, piezoelectric material, shape memory alloy, magneto-strictive material, and electro-active polymer. Both classical and modern control approaches, which have been realized for diverse applications over the last 10 years, are surveyed and discussed using the tables and figures. In order to quickly visualize and compare the different control characteristics of each actuator, the table summarizes several aspects of the specific device/system, controller type, control target, control criterion, inherent property, and outcome. The total publications and appearance of these actuators in every year are shown through the figures to understand the research status and trend easily. In addition, the featured structures of control schemes are analyzed and discussed to provide future research direction for the enhancement of control performance. It is no doubt that this review analysis significantly supports full information so that researchers related to smart materials can understand and compare the salient characteristic of each actuator and hence develop a new or advanced one for a certain control application.