To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal, we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.
In this edition, we hear from Carlos M. Costa as they discuss their recently published review, ‘Polymer-based smart materials for adaptive and sustainable robotic systems: a review‘.
An introduction from Carlos M. Costa
The field of robotics is undergoing rapid expansion and transformation due to the development and integration of polymer-based smart materials. These materials have the ability to detect and respond to a wide range of environmental stimulus, including thermal, electrical, and mechanical signals. This integration is essential for the shift in robotic design towards bio-inspired and flexible designs.
This review is structured around the main classes of smart polymer materials, their system-level integration into robotic platforms, covering the increased adaptability and flexibility, enhanced sensing, actuation and adaptability, sustainability and energy efficiency, AI-assisted control as well as representative applications across medical, industrial and space robotics.
Polymer-based smart materials for adaptive and sustainable robotic systems: a review
Nelson Castro; Carlos M. Costa; Estela Bicho; Senentxu Lanceros-Mendez
RSC Appl. Polym. (2026) 4 (3): 923–942. DOI: 10.1039/d6lp00014b
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RSC Applied Polymers is a leading international journal for the application of polymers, including experimental and computational studies on both natural and synthetic systems. In this journal, you can discover cross-disciplinary scientific research that leverages polymeric materials in a range of applications. This includes high impact advances made possible with polymers across materials, biology, energy applications and beyond. |