Table 1.

Typical performance of various artificial muscles^{1,4,7,12,25,153,156,158}

Mechanism	Actuation strain (%)	Modulus (MPa)	Work density (kJ m−3)	Efficiency (%)	Relative speed
SMP	<100	1–1000	<2000	<10	Slow
SMA	<8	103–105	104–105	<10	Slow
Pneumatic	10–100	0.1–100	1–200	<40	Medium
DEA	1–1000	0.1–10	10–5000	60–90	Fast
IPMC	0.5–10	25–2500	1–10	<10	Slow
Piezoelectric	<2	103–105	100–1000	>90	Fast
Soft magnetic	1–100	0.1–10	<300	—	Medium