In pursuit of the goal of producing complete electromechanical systems entirely via solid freeform fabrication, we are
developing a library of mutually compatible, functional, freeform elements. Several essential elements – actuation, sensing,
and control electronics - still remain to be incorporated into this library. Conducting polymers (CP) are a class of materials
which can be used to produce all of these functionalities. Meanwhile, research into actuatable “smart” materials has
produced other candidate materials for freeform fabricated actuators that are compatible with our library. We have
succeeded in manually producing air-operable actuators that have processing and operating requirements that are
compatible with our power source and mechanical component library elements. A survey of candidate actuator materials is
presented, experiments performed with two types of actuator materials are described, and complete SFF-producible actuator
devices are demonstrated.Mechanical Engineerin
