Autonomous smart devices

A prototypical autonomous biological device is a Vibrio cholerae bacterium that packs the ability to move, sense, target, adapt, and release active substances into just a few cubic centimeters. An example of a smart biological material, muscle, which is composed of autonomous systems, is hierarchically assembled from microscopic subunits, has the ability to exehange information with the enviromnent via electrical and mechanical stimuli, and incorporates energy-conversion modules and self-healing abilities. 

Lay-Ekuakille, A., 2010. Wearable and Autonomous Biomedical Devices and Systems for Smart Environment Issues and Characterization. Springer, Berlin. 

Lumo BodyTech created the Lumo Back, which monitors the user s posture and sends a feedback to an Android or iPhone device in order to track the evolution of the user over time. Later, Neumitra introduced a smart watch called neuma, which helps to measure and manage the autonomic nervous system, it also sends the information to a smartphone. 

This chapter presents a brief overview on sensor and transducer applications of piezoelectric and electrostrictive polymers. Piezoelectric and electrostrictive polymers are smart electromechanical materials which have already found commercial applications in various transducer configurations. Novel applications may arise in the emerging fields of autonomous robots, electronic skin, and flexible energy generators. This chapter focuses on recent device demonstrations of piezoelectric and electrostrictive polymers in these novel fields of research to stimulate and to facilitate the exchange of ideas between disciplines. The applications considered include piezoelectric sensors for electronic skin, piezoelectric loudspeakers and transducers for mechanically flexible energy harvesters, as well as electrostrictive transducers for haptic feedback in displays. 

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