Electroactive Polymers and Giant Robots

[Leader Bee]

Hi, I was wondering how practical EAPs would be in the field of robotics?

 

I know these are materials that can change shape when an current is applied to them and act somewhat like muscles, it's a very basic understanding that goes little further than this however.

 

I don't know what kind of stress they can handle and assume currently they're only used in small scale application ( so no joint muscles for moving a 50 foot death machine )

 

I'm pretty sure the U.S DoD or another organisation similar to this has developed a system called "Dog" to assist squads in combat, this obviously is still in R&D but I don't know if they've incorporated EAP into the system or indeed it is reliable and robust enough to even be considered.

 

How advanced are we in the field of bipedal robotics, Asimo looks like a great development in this field and i've seen it running up and down steps on youtube, seems very well balanced for the most part. ( I'm well aware we wont see human piloted versions of these in a good several generations and hundreds of years)