Forget Robocop CYBORG VERSION 2.0

Robots can also have beating hearts, when scientists combine metal and silicone with living cells. Powered by heart cells and animal muscles, the small cyborgs are a machine and a living creature in one.

The robots are coming – but not necessarily on inflexible, mechanical legs. The most efficient designs were created by nature, and so, robotics scientists are stealing cells and muscles from animals, integrating the biological components into a brand new type of machines: biobots.

Scientists from the US Harvard University attract attention in 2016, when they introduce a biobot shaped like a stingray. The 1.5-cm-wide robot is made of silicone rubber and heart cells from a rat, and the ray swims, when the cells contract. The robotic ray is only one of the odd cyborgs that have been created by the new branch of robotic science. Living organisms move much more freely and efficiently than any robot, and by combining organic tissue with synthetic materials, scientists can improve robot flexibility. The muscles of a biobot contribute more power compared to their weight than traditional robots' electric motors.

ROBOTS WITH BEATING HEARTS

The development of biobots is possible due to particularly two new technologies: 3D printers and tissue technology. With 3D printers, it is easy and cheap to make components for small machines. As it only takes a few hours to make a prototype, scientists can quickly test new ideas in the The 3D printed robot crawls like a turtle, but the muscle that powers it comes from the mouth of the Aplysia californica sea slug. The robot was made by scientists from the Case Western Reserve University in the US, and instead of extracting individual cells from the creature, like most other developers of biobots have done, the American scientists took the entire musculature around the slug’s mouth. The muscle makes the robot’s flexible skeleton contract, and as the sea slug lives in an inconstant tidal zone, the robot is less temperature-sensitive than most other biobots.

MICHAEL ROSNACH The stingray-shaped robot swims by means of muscles grown from rat heart cells.

Cyborg struggle In the “Ghost in the Shell” science hit cyborgs. fiction film, terrorists aim to Major, A woman police officer, The to who is a cyborg herself, tries thwart the terrorists’ plans.

The robot has a skeleton of gold and a body made of silicone rubber grown from heart cells. Robotic ray is made up of four layers Silicone intermediate layer The robot’s silicone rubber body is cast in a titanium mould. LAYER 1: Silicone body LAYER 2:...

Biological component: Muscle from the mouth of a sea slug Size: 5 cm Robot crawls like a turtle The Y-shaped muscle makes the skeleton contract.