Abstract: Photoresponsive polymeric materials have attracted increasing attention due to the unique advantages of light energy such as clean, safe, remote controllable and transient. Photoresponsive polymeric materials are a kind of functional polymers that can absorb energy and undergo intra- or inter-molecular physical or chemical transformations. Through the rational design, photoresponsive polymeric materials undergo macroscopic shape changes and complicated movements such as contraction, bending, creeping, rotation, and so on. Therefore, they can be fabricated to a variety of intelligent soft actuators with a wide range of
applications in many fields. This review describes photodeformable liquid crystalline elastomers as well as their research development in the field of light-driven soft actuators.

Key words:  liquid crystalline elastomer, photo-induced deformation, azobenzene