Steering Muscle-Based Bio-Syncretic Robot Through Bionic Optimized Biped Mechanical Design.

Journal: Soft robotics
Published Date:

Abstract

Bio-syncretic robots consisting of artificial structures and living muscle cells have attracted much attention owing to their potential advantages, such as high drive efficiency, miniaturization, and compatibility. Motion controllability, as an important factor related to the main performance of bio-syncretic robots, has been explored in numerous studies. However, most of the existing bio-syncretic robots still face challenges related to the further development of steerable kinematic dexterity. In this study, a bionic optimized biped fully soft bio-syncretic robot actuated by two muscle tissues and steered with a direction-controllable electric field generated by external circularly distributed multiple electrodes has been developed. The developed bio-syncretic robot could realize wirelessly steerable motion and effective transportation of microparticle cargo on artificial polystyrene and biological pork tripe surfaces. This study may provide an effective strategy for the development of bio-syncretic robots and other related studies, such as nonliving soft robot design and muscle tissue engineering.

Authors

  • Chuang Zhang
    State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenyang, 10016, People's Republic of China. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
  • Lianchao Yang
    State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China.
  • Wenxue Wang
  • Huijie Fan
  • Wenjun Tan
    Key Laboratory of Medical Image Computing, Ministry of Education, Shenyang, China.
  • Ruiqian Wang
    State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China.
  • Feifei Wang
    Peking University Institute of Mental Health , Beijing , China.
  • Ning Xi
    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA. Electronic address: xin@egr.msu.edu.
  • Lianqing Liu