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Technology Smart systems and devices have integrated sensors, actuators,
electronic controllers, and host structures that exhibit new functionality such as mechanical movement. Going beyond the mechanical transducers such as the solenoid; for practical, economic and technological
reasons, it is of interest to build as much of the sensing, actuation and control functionality into the material of the device as possible. As a result, industrial and academic research have increasingly focused
on materials whose characteristic functionality can be manipulated in such ways as to permit desirable predetermined response to
external stimuli: |
