Technological developments boasting better efficiency are springing up everywhere. The guys at MIT have come up with an innovation to “muscle up” electronic devices in the future. These shape-memory alloys on heating change shape, acting as mechanical muscles that produce three to six times more torque and weigh one-20th. These devices known as actuators to be used in electronic devices are cut out from flat metal sheets, a fraction of a millimeter thick.
Rectangular notches chiseled into a metal alloy increases electrical resistance. The material around these rectangular notches heats up when an electric current passes. These shape-memory actuators use this principal and are expected to exert a force, 160 times of their own weight. These tiny muscle-like devices being developed by MIT could help increase energy efficiency of electronics in future.
[Popsci]