Design and fabrication of temperature-tolerant micro bio-robot driven by insect heart tissue

Abstract

Living muscle tissue and cells have been attracted as an actuator candidate. In particular, an insect dorsal vessel (DV) tissue is well suited for an actuator since it is capable of contracting spontaneously and more environmentally robust under culturing conditions compared with mammalian tissue and cells. Here we demonstrate a temperature-tolerant microrobot powered by insect DV tissue. A polypod microrobot was designed and fabricated by assembling a whole DV tissue to an inverted two-row micropillar array consisting of 72 micropillars. Using this microrobot, a contractile force of a whole DV tissue was estimated. The polypod microrobot moved in designed direction successfully at a velocity of 1.3 μm/s. These results indicate that the DV tissue has a high potential for an actuator of a temperature-tolerant microrobot.