Engineered muscle systems having individually addressable distributed muscle actuators controlled by optical stimuli

Abstract

A multi degree-of-freedom system using live skeletal muscles as actuators is presented. Millimeter-scale, optically excitable 3D skeletal muscle strips are created by culturing genetically coded precursory muscle cells that are activated with light: optogenetics. These muscle bio-actuators are networked together to create a distributed actuator system. Unlike traditional mechanical systems where fixed axis joints are rotated with electric motors, the new networked muscle bio-actuators can activate loads having no fixed joint. These types of loads include shoulders, the mouth, and the jaw. The optogenetic approach offers high spatiotemporal resolution for precise control of muscle activation, and opens up the possibility to activate hundreds of interconnected muscles in a spatiotemporally coordinated manner. In this work, we explore the design of robotic systems composed of multiple light-activated live muscular actuator units. We describe and compare massively parallel and highly serial/networked distributions of these building-block actuator units. We have built functional fundamental prototypes and present experimental results to demonstrate the feasibility of the construction of larger scale muscle systems.