In this paper, we propose a multimodal flexible sensory interface for interactively teaching soft robots to perform skilled locomotion using bare human hands. First, we develop a flexible bimodal smart skin (FBSS) based on triboelectric nanogenerator and liquid metal sensing that can perform simultaneous tactile and touchless sensing and distinguish these two modes in real time. With the FBSS, soft robots can react on their own to tactile and touchless stimuli. We then propose a distance control method that enabled humans to teach soft robots movements via bare hand-eye coordination. The results showed that participants can effectively teach a self-reacting soft continuum manipulator complex motions in three-dimensional space through a “shifting sensors and teaching” method within just a few minutes. The soft manipulator can repeat the human-taught motions and replay them at different speeds. Finally, we demonstrate that humans can easily teach the soft manipulator to complete specific tasks such as completing a pen-and-paper maze, taking a throat swab, and crossing a barrier to grasp an object. We envision that this user-friendly, non-programmable teaching method based on flexible multimodal sensory interfaces could broadly expand the domains in which humans interact with and utilize soft robots.
The innate immunity of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) has recently emerged as an important issue in ESC biology and in ESC-based regenerative medicine. We have recently reported that mouse ESCs (mESCs) do not have a functional type I interferon (IFN)-based antiviral innate immunity. They are deficient in expressing IFN in response to viral infection and have limited ability to respond to IFN. Using fibroblasts (FBs) as a cell model, the current study investigated the development of antiviral mechanisms during in vitro differentiation of mESCs. We demonstrate that mESC-differentiated FBs (mESC-FBs) share extensive similarities with naturally differentiated FBs in morphology, marker expression, and growth pattern, but their development of antiviral mechanisms lags behind. Nonetheless, the antiviral mechanisms are inducible during mESC differentiation as demonstrated by the transition of nuclear factor kappa B (NFkB), a key transcription factor for IFN expression, from its inactive state in mESCs to its active state in mESC-FBs and by increased responses of mESC-FBs to viral stimuli and IFN during their continued in vitro propagation. Together with our previously published study, the current data provide important insights into molecular basis for the deficiency of IFN expression in mESCs and the development of antiviral innate immunity during mESC differentiation.
We have previously reported that mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) do not have a functional IFN-based antiviral mechanism. The current study extends our investigation to the inflammatory response in mESCs and mESC-differentiated cells. We demonstrate that LPS, TNFα, and viral infection, all of which induce robust inflammatory responses in naturally differentiated cells, failed to activate NFκB, the key transcription factor that mediates inflammatory responses, and were unable to induce the expression of inflammatory genes in mESCs. Similar results were obtained in human ESCs (hESCs). In addition to the inactive state of NFκB, the deficiency of inflammatory response in mESCs is also attributed to the lack of functional receptors for LPS and TNFα. In vitro differentiation can trigger the development of the inflammatory response mechanism, as indicated by the transition of NFκB from its inactive to active state. However, a limited response was observed in mESC-differentiated fibroblasts only to TNFα and viral infection, but not to LPS. We conclude that the inflammatory response mechanism is not active in mESCs, and in vitro differentiation promotes only partial development of this mechanism. Together with our previous studies, the findings described in this paper demonstrate that ESCs are fundamentally different from differentiated somatic cells in their innate immunity, which may have important implications in developmental biology, immunology and ESC-based regenerative medicine.
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