Enhancing the Performance of Skeletal Muscle Powered Biohybrid Robots

Abstract

Skeletal muscle powers all voluntary motion in many living creatures, enabling behaviors such as walking, jumping, swimming, and flying. The field of biohybrid robotics aims to use biological actuators, such as skeletal muscle, to power adaptable robots that respond to their environment. Previous work in this field has focused on deploying 3D skeletal muscle tissues to power robotic function. In natural systems, muscles can also be organized in 2D formats to power a range of movements such as fish-like swimming and peristaltic pumping. However, long-lasting 2D cultures of skeletal muscle have been precluded by force-generating cells delaminating from their underlying substrate. Building on previous work from our lab demonstrating a method to culture contractile skeletal muscle in 2D formats, this work aims to enhance the performance of these systems by tuning substrate stiffness and topography. We show that optimizing system parameters prolongs actuator lifetime and enhances force by 100x.