Organic chemistry
Since the invention of the first synthetic polymer product, bakelite, synthetic polymer products have frequently been invented.
Electroactive polymers
In 1999, Yoseph Bar-Cohen proposed the Armwrestling Match of EAP Robotic Arm Against Human Challenge. This was a challenge in which research groups around the world competed to design a robotic arm consisting of EAP muscles that could defeat a human in an arm wrestling match. The first challenge was held at the Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices Conference in 2005. Another major milestone of the field is that the first commercially developed device including EAPs as an artificial muscle was produced in 2002 by Eamex in Japan. This device was a fish that was able to swim on its own, moving its tail using an EAP muscle. But the progress in practical development has not been satisfactory.