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Yuan Z, Guo Q, Jin D, Zhang P, Yang W. Biohybrid Soft Robots Powered by Myocyte: Current Progress and Future Perspectives. MICROMACHINES 2023; 14:1643. [PMID: 37630179 PMCID: PMC10456826 DOI: 10.3390/mi14081643] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2023] [Revised: 08/17/2023] [Accepted: 08/19/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2023]
Abstract
Myocyte-driven robots, a type of biological actuator that combines myocytes with abiotic systems, have gained significant attention due to their high energy efficiency, sensitivity, biocompatibility, and self-healing capabilities. These robots have a unique advantage in simulating the structure and function of human tissues and organs. This review covers the research progress in this field, detailing the benefits of myocyte-driven robots over traditional methods, the materials used in their fabrication (including myocytes and extracellular materials), and their properties and manufacturing techniques. Additionally, the review explores various control methods, robot structures, and motion types. Lastly, the potential applications and key challenges faced by myocyte-driven robots are discussed and summarized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheng Yuan
- School of Electromechanical and Automotive Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China; (Z.Y.); (Q.G.)
| | - Qinghao Guo
- School of Electromechanical and Automotive Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China; (Z.Y.); (Q.G.)
| | - Delu Jin
- School of Human Ities and Social Science, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China;
| | - Peifan Zhang
- Control Science and Engineering, Naval Aviation University, Yantai 264001, China
| | - Wenguang Yang
- School of Electromechanical and Automotive Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China; (Z.Y.); (Q.G.)
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Blackiston D, Kriegman S, Bongard J, Levin M. Biological Robots: Perspectives on an Emerging Interdisciplinary Field. Soft Robot 2023; 10:674-686. [PMID: 37083430 PMCID: PMC10442684 DOI: 10.1089/soro.2022.0142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Advances in science and engineering often reveal the limitations of classical approaches initially used to understand, predict, and control phenomena. With progress, conceptual categories must often be re-evaluated to better track recently discovered invariants across disciplines. It is essential to refine frameworks and resolve conflicting boundaries between disciplines such that they better facilitate, not restrict, experimental approaches and capabilities. In this essay, we address specific questions and critiques which have arisen in response to our research program, which lies at the intersection of developmental biology, computer science, and robotics. In the context of biological machines and robots, we explore changes across concepts and previously distinct fields that are driven by recent advances in materials, information, and life sciences. Herein, each author provides their own perspective on the subject, framed by their own disciplinary training. We argue that as with computation, certain aspects of developmental biology and robotics are not tied to specific materials; rather, the consilience of these fields can help to shed light on issues of multiscale control, self-assembly, and relationships between form and function. We hope new fields can emerge as boundaries arising from technological limitations are overcome, furthering practical applications from regenerative medicine to useful synthetic living machines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas Blackiston
- Department of Biology, Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
- Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Institute for Computationally Designed Organisms, Massachusetts and Vermont, USA
| | - Sam Kriegman
- Institute for Computationally Designed Organisms, Massachusetts and Vermont, USA
- Center for Robotics and Biosystems, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
| | - Josh Bongard
- Institute for Computationally Designed Organisms, Massachusetts and Vermont, USA
- Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA
| | - Michael Levin
- Department of Biology, Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
- Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Institute for Computationally Designed Organisms, Massachusetts and Vermont, USA
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Perricone V, Santulli C, Rendina F, Langella C. Organismal Design and Biomimetics: A Problem of Scale. Biomimetics (Basel) 2021; 6:biomimetics6040056. [PMID: 34698083 PMCID: PMC8544225 DOI: 10.3390/biomimetics6040056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2021] [Revised: 09/16/2021] [Accepted: 09/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Organisms and their features represent a complex system of solutions that can efficiently inspire the development of original and cutting-edge design applications: the related discipline is known as biomimetics. From the smallest to the largest, every species has developed and adapted different working principles based on their relative dimensional realm. In nature, size changes determine remarkable effects in organismal structures, functions, and evolutionary innovations. Similarly, size and scaling rules need to be considered in the biomimetic transfer of solutions to different dimensions, from nature to artefacts. The observation of principles that occur at very small scales, such as for nano- and microstructures, can often be seen and transferred to a macroscopic scale. However, this transfer is not always possible; numerous biological structures lose their functionality when applied to different scale dimensions. Hence, the evaluation of the effects and changes in scaling biological working principles to the final design dimension is crucial for the success of any biomimetic transfer process. This review intends to provide biologists and designers with an overview regarding scale-related principles in organismal design and their application to technical projects regarding mechanics, optics, electricity, and acoustics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Perricone
- Department of Engineering, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Roma 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
- Correspondence: (V.P.); (F.R.)
| | - Carlo Santulli
- School of Science and Technology, Università di Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano 7, 62032 Camerino, Italy;
| | - Francesco Rendina
- Department of Science and Technology, University of Naples “Parthenope”, URL CoNISMa, Centro Direzionale, Is. C4, 80143 Naples, Italy
- Correspondence: (V.P.); (F.R.)
| | - Carla Langella
- Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via San Lorenzo, 81031 Aversa, Italy;
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Caro-Astorga J, Walker KT, Herrera N, Lee KY, Ellis T. Bacterial cellulose spheroids as building blocks for 3D and patterned living materials and for regeneration. Nat Commun 2021; 12:5027. [PMID: 34413311 PMCID: PMC8377073 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25350-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2020] [Accepted: 08/03/2021] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Engineered living materials (ELMs) based on bacterial cellulose (BC) offer a promising avenue for cheap-to-produce materials that can be programmed with genetically encoded functionalities. Here we explore how ELMs can be fabricated in a modular fashion from millimetre-scale biofilm spheroids grown from shaking cultures of Komagataeibacter rhaeticus. Here we define a reproducible protocol to produce BC spheroids with the high yield bacterial cellulose producer K. rhaeticus and demonstrate for the first time their potential for their use as building blocks to grow ELMs in 3D shapes. Using genetically engineered K. rhaeticus, we produce functionalized BC spheroids and use these to make and grow patterned BC-based ELMs that signal within a material and can sense and report on chemical inputs. We also investigate the use of BC spheroids as a method to regenerate damaged BC materials and as a way to fuse together smaller material sections of cellulose and synthetic materials into a larger piece. This work improves our understanding of BC spheroid formation and showcases their great potential for fabricating, patterning and repairing ELMs based on the promising biomaterial of bacterial cellulose. Bacterial cellulose is a promising cheap-to-produce programmable engineered living material. Here the authors present a method for production of spheroids for use as engineerable building blocks able to sense and respond to chemical inputs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joaquin Caro-Astorga
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Kenneth T Walker
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.,Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Natalia Herrera
- Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Koon-Yang Lee
- Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Tom Ellis
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK. .,Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology, Imperial College London, London, UK.
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Schmickl T, Szopek M, Mondada F, Mills R, Stefanec M, Hofstadler DN, Lazic D, Barmak R, Bonnet F, Zahadat P. Social Integrating Robots Suggest Mitigation Strategies for Ecosystem Decay. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2021; 9:612605. [PMID: 34109162 PMCID: PMC8181169 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.612605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
We develop here a novel hypothesis that may generate a general research framework of how autonomous robots may act as a future contingency to counteract the ongoing ecological mass extinction process. We showcase several research projects that have undertaken first steps to generate the required prerequisites for such a technology-based conservation biology approach. Our main idea is to stabilise and support broken ecosystems by introducing artificial members, robots, that are able to blend into the ecosystem's regulatory feedback loops and can modulate natural organisms' local densities through participation in those feedback loops. These robots are able to inject information that can be gathered using technology and to help the system in processing available information with technology. In order to understand the key principles of how these robots are capable of modulating the behaviour of large populations of living organisms based on interacting with just a few individuals, we develop novel mathematical models that focus on important behavioural feedback loops. These loops produce relevant group-level effects, allowing for robotic modulation of collective decision making in social organisms. A general understanding of such systems through mathematical models is necessary for designing future organism-interacting robots in an informed and structured way, which maximises the desired output from a minimum of intervention. Such models also help to unveil the commonalities and specificities of the individual implementations and allow predicting the outcomes of microscopic behavioural mechanisms on the ultimate macroscopic-level effects. We found that very similar models of interaction can be successfully used in multiple very different organism groups and behaviour types (honeybee aggregation, fish shoaling, and plant growth). Here we also report experimental data from biohybrid systems of robots and living organisms. Our mathematical models serve as building blocks for a deep understanding of these biohybrid systems. Only if the effects of autonomous robots onto the environment can be sufficiently well predicted can such robotic systems leave the safe space of the lab and can be applied in the wild to be able to unfold their ecosystem-stabilising potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Schmickl
- Artificial Life Laboratory of the Institute of Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Martina Szopek
- Artificial Life Laboratory of the Institute of Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Francesco Mondada
- Mobile Robotic Systems Group, School of Engineering and School of Computer and Communication Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Rob Mills
- Mobile Robotic Systems Group, School of Engineering and School of Computer and Communication Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- BioISI, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Martin Stefanec
- Artificial Life Laboratory of the Institute of Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Daniel N. Hofstadler
- Artificial Life Laboratory of the Institute of Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Dajana Lazic
- Artificial Life Laboratory of the Institute of Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Rafael Barmak
- Mobile Robotic Systems Group, School of Engineering and School of Computer and Communication Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Frank Bonnet
- Mobile Robotic Systems Group, School of Engineering and School of Computer and Communication Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Payam Zahadat
- Department of Computer Science, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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The Built Environment. Biomimetics (Basel) 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/9781119683360.ch4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
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