Engineers at MIT have devised an ingenious new method to produce synthetic muscle mass for gentle robots that may flex in multiple course, just like the complicated muscle mass within the human physique.
The workforce leveraged 3D printing and muscle cells derived from people and mice to develop a man-made construction that pulls concentrically and radially, just like how the human iris dilates and constricts the pupil.
The researchers are calling this methodology ‘stamping,’ as a result of it includes 3D printing a stamp patterned with microscopic grooves solely massive sufficient to every home a person cell. Apparently, it was impressed by the best way Jell-O molds form gelatinous desserts.
Subsequent, they pressed the stamp right into a hydrogel – an artificial equal of organic tissue that offered a versatile, water-containing matrix for actual cells.
Ritu Raman et al / MIT
These hydrogel-laden grooves have been then seeded with actual muscle cells that have been genetically engineered to reply to mild. They grew alongside these grooves into fibers over the course of a day, and subsequently right into a muscle roughly the identical dimension as a human iris.
The researchers then stimulated this synthetic muscle with pulses of sunshine, and it contracted in a number of instructions identical to an actual human iris.
“On this work, we needed to point out we will use this stamp method to make a ‘robotic’ that may do issues that earlier muscle-powered robots can’t do,” defined Ritu Raman, who co-authored the paper describing this methodology that appeared final week in Biomaterials Science.
This might unlock new capabilities in gentle robots, which function extra mechanically as a result of they’re fitted with rigid parts. “As an alternative of utilizing inflexible actuators which might be typical in underwater robots, if we will use gentle organic robots, we will navigate and be far more energy-efficient, whereas additionally being fully biodegradable and sustainable,” Raman famous.
The stamping methodology is notable not solely due to what it permits, but in addition as a result of it is cost-effective and simply accessible. The MIT workforce used high-end precision 3D printers on the college for this work, however Raman says equally intricate stamps might be produced utilizing consumer-grade printers as properly. The stamps may also be cleaned and reused to create extra synthetic muscle mass.
The researchers plan to strive stamping with different cell sorts, and have a look at different muscle mass they will replicate for quite a lot of robotic capabilities.
I am eager to see how that is used to develop extra superior gentle robots within the close to future. Earlier this yr, we noticed Cornell College researchers give you ‘robotic blood’ – a Redox Circulate Battery system that may be embedded in robots with out the necessity for inflexible buildings. Between these two improvements, we’re inching nearer to creating robots that may squeeze into tight spots and examine leaky undersea pipes, or conduct difficult search-and-rescue operations.
Supply: MIT Information
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