Electromechanical Muscle?

Mateorabi asks: "We just saw in a previous Slashdot article on how advances are being made in converting between electrical energy and torque motions. Does any sort of material have similar properties for contraction/expansion motions? I have in mind something like a plastic that would contract a good distance under an applied voltage: similar to the properties of human muscle tissue in behavior and strength. Wouldn't such a be a perfect for use in artficial limbs (+ lots of other stuff too)?"

Comments

Making it perfect for use?

[Lord_Hern]

All materials that are currently examined for contractile action to applied current suffer from a fundamental flaw - fatigue failure. Materials are engineered to withstand X load under Y cirumstances with Z tolerance for T time. Exceed that and the device will fail catastrophically.
Living tissues actively repair themselves when wearing out. As long as the tissue isn't completely destroyed it will recover.

1. The real question is: How can a contractile material be developed to withstand and
2. recover from fatigue related failures similar to a muscle?