Robot with living muscles walks in water

Japan A biohybrid biped robot measuring just 3 cm in height can move and even change direction in water by contracting its muscles.

Robot with living muscles walks in water

Two-legged robot walks in water. Video : Science.org

Japanese scientists have created a tiny bipedal robot that incorporates both muscle tissue and artificial materials, and can walk and change direction by contracting its muscles, New Scientist reported on January 26. The new research was published in the journal Matter.

Some biohybrid robots capable of crawling and swimming have been created with lab-grown muscles. However, the new robot is the first bipedal robot that can turn and make sharp turns. It does this by sending electricity to one leg to make the muscle contract, while the other leg remains stationary. The muscle acts as a biohybrid actuator – a device that converts electrical energy into mechanical force.

The robot, which is just 3cm tall, cannot currently stand on its own in the air and has a foam buoy to help it stand in a tank of water. Its muscles were grown from mouse cells in the lab.

"This is just basic research. We are not at the stage where we can use this robot anywhere. To make it work in the air, we need to solve many related problems, but we believe we can do it by increasing muscle strength," said team member Shoji Takeuchi at the University of Tokyo.

The robot is still very slow by human standards, moving just 5.4 mm per minute. It also takes more than a minute to turn 90 degrees, given that it receives electrical stimulation every 5 seconds. To walk in air instead of water, the robot also needs a nutrient supply system to keep its muscle tissue alive.

Takeuchi hopes the team can make the robot move faster by optimizing the electrical stimulation pattern and improving the design. "The next step with this biohybrid robot is to develop a version with additional joints and muscle tissue to enable more sophisticated walking. It will also be necessary to develop thick muscles to increase strength," he said.

"Biohybrid robots are useful tools for studying engineered muscle tissue, as well as for studying how to control biological actuators. As forces and control are improved through this type of research, the potential for applying such actuators to more complex robots will increase," said Victoria Webster-Wood, an expert at Carnegie Mellon University.

Thu Thao (According to New Scientist )

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