Biohybrid swimming robot uses motor neurons and cardiomyocytes to emulate muscle tissue

A combined team of bio researchers and roboticists from Brigham and Women's Hospital, in the U.S., and the iPrint Institute, in Switzerland, has developed a tiny swimming robot using human motor neurons and cardiomyocytes grown to emulate muscle tissue.

Their paper is published in the journal Science Robotics. Nicole Xu, a mechanical engineer at the University of Colorado Boulder, has published a Focus piece in the same journal issue outlining ongoing work to create bioinspired robots using animal tissue.

For many years, science fiction writers and movie makers have used the idea of combining electronics, computers and animal tissue to create robots ...