Polymer Actuators
Stephen Leeb, PhD introduced the capabilities of polymer actuators. These are synthetic materials that increase or decrease in volume in response to various inputs: temperature, electromagnetic fields, acidity, and so on. Depending on the configuration, the polymer actuators can provide a pulling or pushing force, so they are very versatile. The present limitation is that large gels change slowly but create a stronger force; smaller quantities of gel change faster but with less force.
One possible medical application would be to line flexible tubing with a temperature-calibrated layer of polymer gel. If this were a lavage tube, for example, it could be designed so that if the fluid became so hot that it might injure the patient the gel would automatically thicken and shut off the flow. In this application, the gel lining serves as both sensor and valve, at a very low cost. He speculated that this technology might prove suitable to create an automatic volume-adjustable socket in the future.