MIT Builds a Paper-Thin Robot That Swims Using Living Muscle– www.techexplorist.com
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EXCERPT:
At first glance, it looks more like a sliver of transparent gel than a robot. It’s about the length of a stick of gum, paper-thin, and propelled not by batteries or motors, but by living muscle cells.
Yet this miniature machine can swim.
Engineers at MIT have created a soft, muscle-powered robot that moves through water using a single layer of living muscle tissue. The study, published in Advanced Functional Materials, marks the first demonstration of a thin, two-dimensional biohybrid robot capable of locomotion.
The work represents a step toward a new generation of robots built not from metal and electronics alone, but from living tissues engineered to perform useful tasks.
The robot’s body consists of a flexible gel film roughly half a millimeter thick. The film is divided into two fin-like sections, each coated with a layer of living muscle cells far thinner than a human hair. Those muscle cells were genetically engineered to respond to light.
