Muscle tissue engineering for bio-hybrid robotics

Soft robots are built with materials that have elasticities in the range of soft biological systems; therefore, they are capable of autonomous behavior and they present agile and adaptive properties, meaning that they can respond to ever-changing peripheral conditions. Integration of complex biological systems, which can sense and respond to their surrounding conditions in real-time, into soft robot designs leads to the realization of soft robots with superior characteristics. In this exciting project at the interface of biological and engineering sciences, we aim to generate constructs of muscle tissue from living skeletal muscle cells beyond the state-of-art size via 3D bioprinting and to achieve deformation of the overall structure by inducing cell contractions via electrical stimulation. Biocompatible materials will be studied to optimize the formulation of the bio-inks, as well as various perfusion approaches will be implemented to reach the relevant size of the engineered tissue. Hydrogel-based sensors will be integrated in the tissue construct in situ, during the biofabrication process. The sensors will combine piezoresistive properties with low Shore hardness, maintaining good affinity to the surrounding tissue. The realized tissues will be implemented into biohybrid soft robots to be controlled through electrical stimulation of the muscle fibers, with the overarching goal of understanding the coordinated actions of the integrated multicellular muscle networks in response to dynamically changing external signals.

Soft robots are built with materials that have elasticities in the range of soft biological systems; therefore, they are capable of autonomous behavior and they present agile and adaptive properties, meaning that they can respond to ever-changing peripheral conditions. Integration of complex biological systems, which can sense and respond to their surrounding conditions in real-time, into soft robot designs leads to the realization of soft robots with superior characteristics.
In this exciting project at the interface of biological and engineering sciences, we aim to generate constructs of muscle tissue from living skeletal muscle cells beyond the state-of-art size via 3D bioprinting and to achieve deformation of the overall structure by inducing cell contractions via electrical stimulation. Biocompatible materials will be studied to optimize the formulation of the bio-inks, as well as various perfusion approaches will be implemented to reach the relevant size of the engineered tissue. Hydrogel-based sensors will be integrated in the tissue construct in situ, during the biofabrication process. The sensors will combine piezoresistive properties with low Shore hardness, maintaining good affinity to the surrounding tissue. The realized tissues will be implemented into biohybrid soft robots to be controlled through electrical stimulation of the muscle fibers, with the overarching goal of understanding the coordinated actions of the integrated multicellular muscle networks in response to dynamically changing external signals.

 Complete literature review on muscle-based soft actuators  Functional designs of various scaffolds for a muscle-based soft actuator  Bio-printed skeletal muscle cells  Rheological characterization and fabrication of soft sensors with a bio-printer  Characterization, actuation, and control of the realized robot

 Complete literature review on muscle-based soft actuators

 Functional designs of various scaffolds for a muscle-based soft actuator

 Bio-printed skeletal muscle cells

 Rheological characterization and fabrication of soft sensors with a bio-printer

 Characterization, actuation, and control of the realized robot

Dr. Miriam Filippi, mfilippi@ethz.ch, Soft Robotics Lab, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, D-MAVT Prof. Robert Katzschmann, rkk@ethz.ch, Soft Robotics Lab, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, D-MAVT

Dr. Miriam Filippi, mfilippi@ethz.ch, Soft Robotics Lab, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, D-MAVT

Prof. Robert Katzschmann, rkk@ethz.ch, Soft Robotics Lab, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, D-MAVT