Physical Intelligence Article 2017

Biohybrid actuators for robotics: a review of devices actuated by living cells

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Actuation is essential for artificial machines to interact with their surrounding environment and to accomplish the functions for which they are designed. Over the past few decades, there has been considerable progress in developing new actuation technologies. However, controlled motion still represents a considerable bottleneck for many applications and hampers the development of advanced robots, especially at small length scales. Nature has solved this problem using molecular motors that, through living cells, are assembled into multiscale ensembles with integrated control systems. These systems can scale force production from piconewtons up to kilonewtons. By leveraging the performance of living cells and tissues and directly interfacing them with artificial components, it should be possible to exploit the intricacy and metabolic efficiency of biological actuation within artificial machines. We provide a survey of important advances in this biohybrid actuation paradigm.

Author(s): Ricotti, Leonardo and Trimmer, Barry and Feinberg, Adam W. and Raman, Ritu and Parker, Kevin K. and Bashir, Rashid and Sitti, Metin and Martel, Sylvain and Dario, Paolo and Menciassi, Arianna
Journal: Science Robotics
Volume: 2
Number (issue): 12
Pages: eaaq0495
Year: 2017
Bibtex Type: Article (article)
DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aaq0495
Electronic Archiving: grant_archive

BibTex

@article{Ricottieaaq0495,
  title = {Biohybrid actuators for robotics: a review of devices actuated by living cells},
  journal = {Science Robotics},
  abstract = {Actuation is essential for artificial machines to interact with their surrounding environment and to accomplish the functions for which they are designed. Over the past few decades, there has been considerable progress in developing new actuation technologies. However, controlled motion still represents a considerable bottleneck for many applications and hampers the development of advanced robots, especially at small length scales. Nature has solved this problem using molecular motors that, through living cells, are assembled into multiscale ensembles with integrated control systems. These systems can scale force production from piconewtons up to kilonewtons. By leveraging the performance of living cells and tissues and directly interfacing them with artificial components, it should be possible to exploit the intricacy and metabolic efficiency of biological actuation within artificial machines. We provide a survey of important advances in this biohybrid actuation paradigm.},
  volume = {2},
  number = {12},
  pages = {eaaq0495 },
  year = {2017},
  slug = {ricottieaaq0495},
  author = {Ricotti, Leonardo and Trimmer, Barry and Feinberg, Adam W. and Raman, Ritu and Parker, Kevin K. and Bashir, Rashid and Sitti, Metin and Martel, Sylvain and Dario, Paolo and Menciassi, Arianna}
}