“…Examples include rigid plates or tensegrity structures actuated by servo-motors (Gao et al, 2007;Moored et al, 2008;Moored & Bart-Smith, 2009;Zhou & Low, 2012) and flexible membrane actuated by shape memory alloy (SMA) (Wang et al, 2009). However, these methods are not suitable for smallscale robots (on the order of 5-10 cm) (Shahinpoor, 1992;Mojarrad & Shahinpoor, 1996;Tan et al, 2006;Guo et al, 2003;Punning et al, 2004) because of either the limitations in scaling or high power consumption. To construct a free swimming and small-scale robotic manta ray, there is a need for a bio-inspired actuating material that is lightweight, compliant, resilient, and capable of generating 3 dimensional (3D) deformations with portable power consumption.…”