This book covers biodevices, mainly implantable or quirurgical, for the diagnosis or treatment of different pathologies, which benefit from the use of active materials as sensors or actuators. Such active or "intelligent" materials are capable of responding in a controlled way to different external physical or chemical stimuli by changing some of their properties. These materials can be used to design and develop sensors, actuators, and multifunctional systems with a large number of applications for developing biodevices and medical appliances.

Current work on these fields entails problems related to synthesis, characterization, modeling, simulation, processing, and prototyping technologies, as well as device testing and validation, all of which are treated in depth in this book, for the several types of active or intelligent materials covered. The research presented in this book helps further development of medical devices, based on the additional functionalities that the use of active or "intelligent" materials, both as sensors and actuators, supplies. The main results exposed may help with the industrial expansion of this kind of materials as part of more complex systems.

Andres Diaz Lantada studied industrial engineering and specialized in mechanical engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain (www.upm.es). He obtained his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 2009 with a thesis on "methodology for the structured development of medical devices based on active polymers." He has worked for 10 years as a researcher at this university’s Mechanical Engineering Department and collaborated actively with its Product Development Laboratory, in both research and teaching tasks. Currently he works as assistant professor at UPM and teaches subjects at both the graduate and postgraduate levels, as well as specialization courses. He is also actively engaged in conducting research on different areas related with product development. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, several books and book chapters and is the co-inventor of 10 patents on the use of active materials for improving the sensing/actuating capabilities of medical products.