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Biohybrid Robot Combines Living Muscle With Artificial Materials
Living muscle tissues are combined with artificial materials to create a robot.
( Two-legged biohybrid robot )
The robot's bipedal design builds upon the lineage of muscle-possessing biohybrid robots, which had previously demonstrated capabilities in crawling, swimming forward, and making turns—albeit not sharp ones. The capacity to turn sharply is a pivotal feature for robots navigating obstacles.To construct a more agile robot with nuanced movements, the researchers fashioned a biohybrid model emulating human gait, specifically engineered for operation in water. Equipped with a foam buoy top and weighted legs for stability underwater, the robot's skeleton primarily comprises flexible silicone rubber that can flex in accordance with muscle movements. Lab-grown skeletal muscle tissues were affixed to the silicone rubber on each leg.
The application of electricity to the muscle tissue triggers a contraction, lifting the leg, and the subsequent dissipation of the electricity causes the heel to land forward. Alternating electric stimulation between the left and right leg every 5 seconds facilitated the biohybrid robot's successful "walking" at a speed of 5.4 mm/min (0.002 mph). For turns, researchers repeatedly stimulated the right leg while the left leg anchored, enabling the robot to execute a 90-degree left turn in 62 seconds. “Initially, we weren't at all sure that achieving bipedal walking was possible, so it was truly surprising when we succeeded,” said Takeuchi. “Our biohybrid robot managed to perform forward and turning movements with a bipedal walk by effectively balancing four key forces: the muscle contractile force, the restorative force of the flexible body, the gravity acting on the weight, and the buoyancy of the float.”
(Via synbiobeta.)
Science fiction fans recall the power wagons from The Last Castle, a 1967 novel by Jack Vance:
(Power-wagon from 'The Last Castle' by Jack Vance)Power-wagons, like the Meks, originally swamp-creatures from Etamin 9, were great rectangular slabs of muscle, slung into a rectangular frame and protected from sunlight, insects and rodents by a synthetic pelt. Syrup sacs communicated with their digestive apparatus, wires led to motor nodes in the rudimentary brain. The muscles were clamped to rocker arms which actuated rotors and drive wheels. The power-wagons, economical, long-lived, and docile, were principally used for heavy cartage, earth-moving, heavy tillage and other arduous jobs.
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