Electrically Driven Microengineered Bioinspired Soft Robots

TLDR

Living muscle actuator technologies borrow biomimetic concepts to create life‑like movements in bioinspired robots. The study reports developing a bioinspired soft robot with self‑actuating cardiac muscles on a hierarchical scaffold integrated with flexible gold microelectrodes. The robot is built on a batoid‑fish‑shaped scaffold of two micropatterned hydrogel layers—PEG for structural stability and gelatin methacryloyl with carbon nanotubes for cell culture—embedded with flexible gold microelectrodes that improve mechanical integrity, conductivity, and enable localized electrical stimulation of the cardiac muscle layer. Cultured cardiomyocytes on the scaffold form well‑organized myofibers and produce self‑actuating motions aligned with their contractile force.

Abstract

Abstract To create life‐like movements, living muscle actuator technologies have borrowed inspiration from biomimetic concepts in developing bioinspired robots. Here, the development of a bioinspired soft robotics system, with integrated self‐actuating cardiac muscles on a hierarchically structured scaffold with flexible gold microelectrodes is reported. Inspired by the movement of living organisms, a batoid‐fish‐shaped substrate is designed and reported, which is composed of two micropatterned hydrogel layers. The first layer is a poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel substrate, which provides a mechanically stable structure for the robot, followed by a layer of gelatin methacryloyl embedded with carbon nanotubes, which serves as a cell culture substrate, to create the actuation component for the soft body robot. In addition, flexible Au microelectrodes are embedded into the biomimetic scaffold, which not only enhance the mechanical integrity of the device, but also increase its electrical conductivity. After culturing and maturation of cardiomyocytes on the biomimetic scaffold, they show excellent myofiber organization and provide self‐actuating motions aligned with the direction of the contractile force of the cells. The Au microelectrodes placed below the cell layer further provide localized electrical stimulation and control of the beating behavior of the bioinspired soft robot.