ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2019
Neuromuscular actuation of biohybrid motile bots.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed.
- Wireless bioelectronic control architectures for muscle-powered biohybrid robotic systems.APL bioengineering · 2026Article
- Biointegrative Design (BinD): An Interdisciplinary Paradigm for Sustainable Biohybrid Systems.Global challenges (Hoboken, NJ) · 2026Article
- Tailored living mycelium macerate for reproducible flexible actuators.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Modular Tissue-Engineered Motor Units Featuring Spinal Motor Neurons Innervating Self-Assembled Myofiber Bundles.Macromolecular bioscience · 2026Article
- 2D Skeletal Muscle Thin Film Actuators Enhance Efficiency of Biohybrid Robots.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Engineered Living Systems With Self-Organizing Neural Networks: From Anatomy to Behavior and Gene Expression.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Biohybrid Robots with Embedded Conductive Fibers for Actuation, Sensing, and Closed-loop Control.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Fast-swimming biohybrid OstraBot with self-trained high-strength muscles.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Biohybrid Tendons Enhance the Power-to-Weight Ratio and Modularity of Muscle-Powered Robots.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Neural models and algorithms for sensorimotor control of an octopus arm.Biological cybernetics · 2025Article
- Optogenetic neuromuscular actuation of a miniature electronic biohybrid robot.Science robotics · 2025Article
- The Morphological, Behavioral, and Transcriptomic Life Cycle of Anthrobots.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- A forward-engineered, muscle-driven soft robotic swimmer.Science advances · 2025Article
- Tetanus-driven biohybrid multijoint robots powered by muscle rings with enhanced contractile force.Science advances · 2025Article
- Designer mammalian living materials through genetic engineering.Bioactive materials · 2025Review
- Leveraging microtopography to pattern multi-oriented muscle actuators.Biomaterials science · 2025Article
- Basal Xenobot transcriptomics reveals changes and novel control modality in cells freed from organismal influence.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Human iPSC-Derived Motor Neuron Innervation Enhances the Differentiation of Muscle Bundles Engineered with Benchtop Fabrication Techniques.ACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2025Article
- Advancing biohybrid robotics: Innovations in contraction models, control techniques, and applications.Biophysics reviews · 2025Review
- Skeletal Muscle Tissue Engineering: From Tissue Regeneration to Biorobotics.Cyborg and bionic systems (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The integration of muscle cells with soft robotics in recent years has led to the development of biohybrid machines capable of untethered locomotion. A major frontier that currently remains unexplored is neuronal actuation and control of such muscle-powered biohybrid machines. As a step toward this goal, we present here a biohybrid swimmer driven by on-board neuromuscular units. The body of the swimmer consists of a free-standing soft scaffold, skeletal muscle tissue, and optogenetic stem cell-derived neural cluster containing motor neurons. Myoblasts embedded in extracellular matrix self-organize into a muscle tissue guided by the geometry of the scaffold, and the resulting muscle tissue is cocultured in situ with a neural cluster. Motor neurons then extend neurites selectively toward the muscle and innervate it, developing functional neuromuscular units. Based on this initial construct, we computationally designed, optimized, and implemented light-sensitive flagellar swimmers actuated by these neuromuscular units. Cyclic muscle contractions, induced by neural stimulation, drive time-irreversible flagellar dynamics, thereby providing thrust for untethered forward locomotion of the swimmer. Overall, this work demonstrates an example of a biohybrid robot implementing neuromuscular actuation and illustrates a path toward the forward design and control of neuron-enabled biohybrid machines.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.