Flapping-wing control is critical to the development of flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles (FMAVs). Existing electro-driven soft actuators for such applications face challenges in balancing the requirements for low driving voltage and high actuation performance (actuation strain, strain rate, and power density). In this study, electro-driven fibrous soft actuators of liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) have been designed and created, which achieve excellent comprehensive performance: low voltage actuation (<6.4 V), a large actuation strain (a maximum actuation strain of 43%), fast actuation strain rate (up to 1417% s−1), and high power density (up to 1631 W kg−1), and wide frequency bandwidth (50 Hz).
