Neuromuscular actuation of biohybrid motile bots

Abstract

The integration of muscle cells with soft robotics in recent years has led to the development of biohybrid machines capable of untethered locomotion. A major frontier that currently remains unexplored is neuronal actuation and control of such muscle-powered biohybrid machines. As a step toward this goal, we present here a biohybrid swimmer driven by on-board neuromuscular units. The body of the swimmer consists of a free-standing soft scaffold, skeletal muscle tissue, and optogenetic stem cell-derived neural cluster containing motor neurons. Myoblasts embedded in extracellular matrix self-organize into a muscle tissue guided by the geometry of the scaffold, and the resulting muscle tissue is cocultured in situ with a neural cluster. Motor neurons then extend neurites selectively toward the muscle and innervate it, developing functional neuromuscular units. Based on this initial construct, we computationally designed, optimized, and implemented light-sensitive flagellar swimmers actuated by these neuromuscular units. Cyclic muscle contractions, induced by neural stimulation, drive time-irreversible flagellar dynamics, thereby providing thrust for untethered forward locomotion of the swimmer. Overall, this work demonstrates an example of a biohybrid robot implementing neuromuscular actuation and illustrates a path toward the forward design and control of neuron-enabled biohybrid machines.

Mechanics of randomly packed filaments—The “bird nest” as meta-material

“…The best solutions are then recombined, to generate a new, more performant pool of aggregates, until no significant improvement is observed. We have employed these procedures in combination to Cosserat models, to improve the locomotory performance of soft-robots [64][65][66] , demonstrating the practical viability of this approach.…”

Computationally assisted design and selection of maneuverable biological walking machines

“…In this context, biological machines have become a prominent paradigm to explore this synergy, in the pursuit of both novel applications and fundamental understanding. In such bio-hybrid systems the biological component can provide actuation, sensing and even computing abilities [6], while artificial elements provide the organizational and structural template [7,8]. This is typically implemented through an elastic, engineered scaffold (the 'skeleton') around which cells grow, self-organize and coordinate their activities, resulting in higher-order functionalities as a combination of internal processes and interactions with the environment [2,5,9,10].…”

“…Over the past decade, this design paradigm has led to bio-integrated soft robots (biobots) that can grip, pump, swim or walk in response to external stimuli (light, mechanic/fluidic pressure, electric fields), providing a glimpse into the potential of this technology [6,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Among these prototypes, untethered walking biobots in the millimeter/centimeter size range, have emerged as reliable platforms to explore and test new cell manipulation and fabrication protocols, design motifs and integration strategies in a consistent setting.…”

“…Despite these early successes, current designs exhibits several limitations. Here we focus on two of them: firstly, bio-hybrid walkers can only perform unidirectional locomotion and are incapable of turning, rotating or altering their trajectory; secondly, although progresses have been made in the computational forward design and optimization of bio-hybrid robots [6,24], there is still a lack of systematic design approaches. As a consequence, from a pool of Exp.…”

Computational design of a neuronal logic device and genetic reprogramming of human iPSCs to control neuronal identity in vitro

“…Moreover, the advent of biological robots and machines (Aydin, et al 2019;Kamm et al, 2018) composed of dynamically interacting cellular components to perform larger system functions calls for functional in vitro neuronal circuits that are capable of information processing, analogous to neural circuits responsible for the brain's ability to process and store information.…”