Electrically Driven Microengineered Bioinspired Soft Robots
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.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 11, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1002/adma.201704189
Entities
People
- Alessandro Enrico
- Ali Khademhosseini
- Beatrice Miccoli
- Bianca Migliori
- Danilo Demarchi
- Jungmok Seo
- Kaizhen Zhang
- Kai‐tak Wan
- Lorenzo Pirrami
- Mehmet Remzi Dökmeci
- Pooria Mostafalu
- Ram Sabarish
- Serena Mandla
- Silvia Antona
- Su Ryon Shin
- Ting Zheng
- Yi‐chen Li
- Yu Shrike Zhang
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- Foundation for the National Institutes of Health
- Harvard Medical School
- Harvard University
- Karolinska Institutet
- King Abdulaziz University
- Konkuk University
- Northeastern University
- Polytechnic University of Turin
- Royal Institute of Technology
- UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science