Is the MILLION DOLLAR MAN here, Now!?

Biohybrid robots, or ‘BioBots’, are exactly what their name implies. They are a recently-developed form of technology where robots are created using both human-made substances, as well as genuine animal tissue. BioBots are built utilizing many different materials, and some even incorporate the new technology of 3D printing to create the required structure for the BioBot.

BioBots are powered by living muscle tissue or cells, e.g., from the heart or skeletal muscles of rats or chickens. These living muscles or cells can be stimulated electronically, or with light, to make the cells contract and their skeletons bend, to create movement for the BioBot such as swimming or crawling.

Here are some examples of BioBots that have been created, and a sampling of the possible applications for Biohybrid Robots. One team created tiny devices that combine muscle from the California sea slug’s mouth (which provides the movement), with materials from three-dimensional printed parts. A robot of this type was fabricated by Case Western Reserve University. Once developed further, the BioBots could be used to search for toxins or leaking pipes in water supplies or the ocean. A number of these BioBots could also search for a black box flight data recorder that was lost at sea. Although this research is in its infancy, it shows that the technology can be built.

Similarly, a Harvard engineer, including faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Michigan, and Stanford University Medical Center, created a Biohybrid Robot modeled after a stingray. The swimming robot was made of a gold skeleton, two layers of silicon, and a mesh of genetically engineered rat muscles. It is controlled by light cues. This Biohybrid Robot is part of a mission to ultimately construct an artificial heart.

And, because they can squeeze through tiny cracks, prototype robot cockroaches have been built, with the eventual goal being to use them to locate disaster victims.

Ultimately, Biohybrid Robots could be fabricated from human cells and used for such medical applications as providing targeted drug delivery, cleaning up clots, or serving as compliant stents that can be actuated (with shape memory). Alternatively, they may even be integrated into the body to function as a biomechanical human heart or serve other functions. One of the main advantages, if scientists are able to make a fully organic robot, is that if the bot gets lost, or is eaten by wildlife, it will not pollute the environment or harm the wildlife that ate the robot.

BioBot technology has almost limitless potential as there are so many possible applications for BioBots. They can be used for anything from constructing an artificial organ, to searching for toxins in the water supply. The partially organic makeup of the bots also means that they are environmentally friendly! Biohybrid robots represent the future, and a cleaner one at that.

If you know about an exciting technology that we should profile, contact us at One Million Solutions in Health, and let us know about it!