Muscle tissue improves robotic finger
Robotic engineers have always dreamt of creating biohybrid robots, in which living tissue cooperates with plastic and metal. Now, scientists from the University of Tokyo, Japan, have developed a robot-making method.
The living muscle tissue was taken from baby rat muscle cells, which were cultured in the lab, until the scientists had bundles of muscle fibres, that were placed on a model of a finger joint made of plastic and metal. Unlike earlier attempts to create biohybrid joints, the scientists attached muscle fibres on both sides of the joint, so they could cooperate. When the muscle on the one side of the joint contracts, the other one is stretched, making the motion more stable. Moreover, the opposing forces mean that the joint returns to its starting point, when both muscles relax. In the artificial finger joint, the scientists used electrodes to activate the muscles and carry out experiments, such as the finger picking up a ring.
The joint remained strong and flexible for more than a week, but before the method can be used in robots and prostheses, challenges remain to be solved. The living tissue must be kept in liquid-filled containers. In the experiment, the entire artificial finger joint was immersed in water.