Progress on Artificial Muscles: Material Designs, Structural Engineering, and Actuation Strategies for Advanced Applications

Artificial muscles represent compliant soft actuators capable of replicating biomimetic contraction, which fill the performance gap between rigid electromechanical equipment and biological tissues. This review systematically consolidates cutting-edge progress across four core dimensions: functional material systems, bioinspired structural architectures, multi-field actuation mechanisms, and diversified engineering applications. Seven mainstream material families, eight core actuation paradigms, and six typical topological configurations are categorized and quantitatively compared in terms of strain, power density, and cycling stability. Representative implementations covering soft robotics, medical rehabilitation, and immersive human-machine interaction are recapitulated, while intrinsic performance trade-offs, weak multifunctional coupling, and absent unified characterization benchmarks are identified as critical translation bottlenecks. Furthermore, forward-looking routes centered on hierarchical multi-material fabrication, self-embedded autonomous intelligence and eco-friendly manufacturing are proposed. This work delivers systematic theoretical references to advance high-performance, ecologically compatible artificial muscle systems bridging artificial machinery and natural organisms.