Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in developing SMART unconventional soft actuators. Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are materials that, because of their advantages, can be easily integrated in low-weight and small volume soft actuators. The proposed actuator is composed from a silicone tube and an electrically heated SMA wire that, when activated bends the tube. The paper presents a study on the actuation without using a special element in order to produce a bias force, the antagonist force that opposes to the contraction of the wire being solely provided by the elastic force of the soft silicone structure. Furthermore, using adequate sensors and a circuit, that regulates the current through PWM, a control system is proposed for this type of actuator.
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