Self-powered sensor technologies are receiving increasing attention owing to their ability to operate independently without the need for external batteries or power supplies. This autonomy enables continuous and real-time monitoring in various applications. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are particularly promising as electrode materials and energy-harvesting components, owing to their excellent electrical conductivity, mechanical robustness, and tunable surface properties. This review provides a concise overview and critical perspectives on recent progress in CNT-based self-powered sensors, focusing on their structural designs, operating mechanisms, and application areas. The sensors are classified according to their practical application environments, including environmental, wearable, and implantable applications, rather than by their energy-harvesting mechanisms or detection targets. Furthermore, current critical challenges, such as durability, scalable fabrication, and in vivo validation, which must be solved to achieve fully autonomous CNT-based sensors for healthcare and environmental monitoring, are discussed. This review underscores the pivotal role of CNT-based self-powered sensors in driving next-generation autonomous monitoring technologies and offers insights for the implementation of such sensors in practical biomedical and environmental applications.

Artificial muscles translate the biological principles of motion into soft, adaptive, and multifunctional actuation. This review accordingly highlights research into natural actuation strategies, such as skeletal muscles, muscular hydrostats, spider silk, and plant turgor systems, to reveal the principles underlying energy conversion and deformation control. Building on these insights, polymer-based artificial muscles based on these principles, including pneumatic muscles, dielectric elastomers, and ionic electroactive systems, are described and their capabilities for efficient contraction, bending, and twisting with tunable stiffness and responsiveness are summarized. Furthermore, the abilities of carbon nanotube composites and twisted yarns to amplify nanoscale dimensional changes through hierarchical helical architectures and achieve power and work densities comparable to those of natural muscle are discussed. Finally, the integration of these actuators into soft robotic systems is explored through biomimetic locomotion and manipulation systems ranging from jellyfish-inspired swimmers to octopus-like grippers, gecko-adhesive manipulators, and beetle-inspired flapping wings. Despite rapid progress in the development of artificial muscles, challenges remain in achieving long-term durability, energy efficiency, integrated sensing, and closed-loop control. Therefore, future research should focus on developing intelligent muscular systems that combine actuation, perception, and self-healing to advance progress toward realizing autonomous, lifelike machines that embody the organizational principles of living systems.