Bioinspired Actuators in Industrial Applications: A State-of-the-Art Review

Bioinspired actuators have attracted increasing attention because of their adaptability, compliance, energy efficiency, and potential for integration into advanced mechanical and robotic systems. However, existing reviews predominantly focus on particular material families, actuation principles, or robotic applications, without providing a unified assessment of their industrial relevance. This review addresses this gap by examining the applications, design, modelling, optimization, and manufacturing of bioinspired actuators from an industrial perspective. A broad bibliometric analysis based on the Web of Science Core Collection was complemented by a harmonized IEEE Xplore search. The investigation began with an analysis of 21 relevant review papers to identify the principal research orientations and insufficiently explored areas. Subsequently, 74 primary studies, including nine additional publications identified through IEEE Xplore, were selected for qualitative analysis using explicitly defined screening and eligibility criteria. The reviewed systems were classified according to their application areas and development approaches, with particular attention paid to robotics, grippers, clamping and positioning devices, modelling and optimization, and manufacturing technologies. Their validation conditions and technological maturity were also examined to distinguish demonstrated industrial applications from industrial-oriented prototypes and potential industrial applications. The results show that most reported solutions remain at the prototype stage, with limited evidence of continuous operation under realistic production conditions. The main barriers to industrial adoption include insufficient durability, limited manufacturing repeatability and scalability, control complexity, and the absence of standardized performance-assessment procedures. Based on these findings, future research directions are proposed for industrial validation, health monitoring, scalable manufacturing, integrated sensing and adaptive control, and modular multifunctional systems.