We love smart materials and especially “Muscle wire” also called memory wire. Usually made from nickel and titanium, these wires are very durable and remembers their preprogrammed shape! Bend it, twist it, deform it in any way and when it is heated up, it automatically returns to it´s predesigned shape. This can be used to make active springs and even tiny muscles that moves when heated up by an electric current. So if you need a completely silent and lightweight alternative to motors and actuators, you should consider using muscle wires. There are a lot of videos out there that demonstrates how they can be used for robotics and more, but how do you program the wires shape? Well we finally found this excellent tutorial from RimstarOrg where this procedure is explained in detail. Now you can design your own smart actuators to fill whatever need you may have! What project can you imagine making with this smart material?