Tri-layer electroactive bending polymeric artificial muscles generally exhibit no overshoot during open-loop step response with a non-zero initial slope when the output is the vertical position of the bending sample tip. If a simple linear first order is not able to capture the variety of step responses when the u-voltage varies along its practical range, we propose to identify such a bending step contraction by a nonlinear system derived from a linear first order system in the form: u e k T t r) 1 (/   where the parameters k, T and r depend on the u-control voltage. We show the relevance of this approach for identifying the step-response of a PEDOT:PSS/PVDF/ionic liquid actuator developed at the laboratory. As a consequence, we show that a linear PI-controller is a simple and an efficient approach for a closed-loop control of the bending actuator. A simple method taking into account voltage saturation control is proposed and applied to both real steps and sine-wave tracking.