text: SMA have many advantages over traditional actuators, but do suffer from a series of limitations that may impede practical application. In numerous studies, it was emphasised that only a few of patented shape memory alloy applications are commercially successful due to material limitations combined with a lack of material and design knowledge and associated tools, such as improper design approaches and techniques used. The challenges in designing SMA applications are to overcome their limitations, which include a relatively small usable strain, low actuation frequency, low controllability, low accuracy and low energy efficiency.