Artist Katherine Ngatai (KatyPie)

IRL Engineering Innovations scientists Dr Emilio Calius and Dr Chee Kit Wong are working with Māori artist Katherine Ngatai (known as KatyPie) on a project using electoactive polymers (EAP) as artificial muscles in moving sculptures.

Their goal is to create a 3D object that moves in a life-like manner and responds to human inputs. It is hoped the result will be active art capable of considerably richer behaviours than most previous kinetic art.

EAP are soft, malleable and aesthetically realistic as artificial muscles. They are capable of lifelike movements such as the beating of a heart.

This work will also contribute to the advancement of a particular type of artificial muscle technology known as dielectric elastomer actuators whose performance is comparable if not better in some ways to natural skeletal muscle.

The challenges presented by creating this artwork are also relevant to developing prosthetics and lightweight, mobile robotics, Engineering Innovations Team Leader Patrick Lim says.