Will microfluidics enable functionally integrated biohybrid robots?

Filippi, Miriam; Yaşa, Öncay; Kamm, Roger D.; Raman, Ritu; Katzschmann, Robert K.

doi:10.1073/pnas.2200741119

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It introduces a rigid component of significant size in the robot, affecting its softness, and limiting the types of maneuvers it can perform and how it can adapt to its environment. Other types of actuation such as artificial muscles made from dielectric materials or microfluidic actuators could help build more efficient soft biohybrid swimmers 60,61 . Finally, we believe that solving the control problem in soft robotics comes hand in hand with solving the modeling problem while considering the high dimensionality of these models and their applicability in real-time control.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design and control of soft biomimetic pangasius fish robot using fin ray effect and reinforcement learning

Youssef

Soliman

Saleh

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Soft robots provide a pathway to accurately mimic biological creatures and be integrated into their environment with minimal invasion or disruption to their ecosystem. These robots made from soft deforming materials possess structural properties and behaviors similar to the bodies and organs of living creatures. However, they are difficult to develop in terms of integrated actuation and sensing, accurate modeling, and precise control. This article presents a soft-rigid hybrid robotic fish inspired by the Pangasius fish. The robot employs a flexible fin ray tail structure driven by a servo motor, to act as the soft body of the robot and provide the undulatory motion to the caudal fin of the fish. To address the modeling and control challenges, reinforcement learning (RL) is proposed as a model-free control strategy for the robot fish to swim and reach a specified target goal. By training and investigating the RL through experiments on real hardware, we illustrate the capability of the fish to learn and achieve the required task.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and control of soft biomimetic pangasius fish robot using fin ray effect and reinforcement learning

Youssef

Soliman

Saleh

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…For instance, biorobots can simulate or mimic various functions of living organisms such as the movement and contraction of muscle, blood vessels, and nerve cells. However, for achieving the efficient driving of the biorobots, it is necessary to connect the bioelectronics with tissues or hydrogels to precisely regulate the movement of biorobots by electrical stimulation or by supplying them with electrical energy [ 18 – 20 ]. Moreover, beyond the widely studied soft robots and actuators, which are composed of inorganic materials and polymers, the hydrogels combined with biomaterials could be used to develop novel biorobots that could replace soft robots.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanomaterial-based biohybrid hydrogel in bioelectronics

Shin

Lim

et al. 2023

Nano Convergence

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Despite the broadly applicable potential in the bioelectronics, organic/inorganic material-based bioelectronics have some limitations such as hard stiffness and low biocompatibility. To overcome these limitations, hydrogels capable of bridging the interface and connecting biological materials and electronics have been investigated for development of hydrogel bioelectronics. Although hydrogel bioelectronics have shown unique properties including flexibility and biocompatibility, there are still limitations in developing novel hydrogel bioelectronics using only hydrogels such as their low electrical conductivity and structural stability. As an alternative solution to address these issues, studies on the development of biohybrid hydrogels that incorporating nanomaterials into the hydrogels have been conducted for bioelectronic applications. Nanomaterials complement the shortcomings of hydrogels for bioelectronic applications, and provide new functionality in biohybrid hydrogel bioelectronics. In this review, we provide the recent studies on biohybrid hydrogels and their bioelectronic applications. Firstly, representative nanomaterials and hydrogels constituting biohybrid hydrogels are provided, and next, applications of biohybrid hydrogels in bioelectronics categorized in flexible/wearable bioelectronic devices, tissue engineering, and biorobotics are discussed with recent studies. In conclusion, we strongly believe that this review provides the latest knowledge and strategies on hydrogel bioelectronics through the combination of nanomaterials and hydrogels, and direction of future hydrogel bioelectronics. Graphical Abstract

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“…1,5 This understanding not only improved cell culture models for biomedical research 6,7 and engineered tissue grafts for medical implantation, 2,8,9 but also enabled controllable biomachines with dynamic abilities (i.e., biohybrid robots). [10][11][12] Through the years, SMT was engineered in vitro via approaches that aim at replicating the ultrastructure of native muscle tissue, which is composed of highly co-oriented myofibers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perfusable biohybrid designs for bioprinted skeletal muscle tissue

Filippi

Yaşa

Giachino

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

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Engineered, centimeter-scale skeletal muscle tissue (SMT) can mimic muscle pathophysiology to study development, disease, regeneration, drug response, and motion. Macroscale SMT requires perfusable channels to guarantee cell survival and support elements to enable mechanical cell stimulation and uniaxial myofiber formation. Here, stable biohybrid designs of centimeter-scale SMT are realized via extrusion-based bioprinting of an optimized polymeric blend based on gelatin methacryloyl and sodium alginate, which can be accurately co-printed with other inks. A perfusable microchannel network is designed to functionally integrate with perfusable anchors for insertion into a maturation culture template. The results demonstrate that (i) co-printed synthetic structures display highly coherent interfaces with the living tissue; (ii) perfusable designs preserve cells from hypoxia all over the scaffold volume; and (iii) constructs can undergo passive mechanical tension during matrix remodeling. Extrusion-based multimaterial bioprinting with our inks and design realizes in vitro matured biohybrid SMT for biomedical, nutritional, and robotic applications.

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Will microfluidics enable functionally integrated biohybrid robots?

Cited by 22 publications

References 118 publications

Design and control of soft biomimetic pangasius fish robot using fin ray effect and reinforcement learning

Design and control of soft biomimetic pangasius fish robot using fin ray effect and reinforcement learning

Nanomaterial-based biohybrid hydrogel in bioelectronics

Perfusable biohybrid designs for bioprinted skeletal muscle tissue

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