3D printed hydrogel bio-bots powered by muscle cells and controlled with electrical pulses Combining biological components, such as cells and tissues, with soft robotics can enable the fabrication of biological machines with the ability to sense, process signals, and produce force. Engineers at the University of Illinois are working on developing a Bio-Robot which can be produced easily by using 3D printing technology. They developed similar bio-bots few years back itself. But that time they used heart cell. Now they find a way to use muscle cells to gain more control. The frequency of the electric field determines the speed of this bio-bot . This muscle-powered biobots will improve the soft biorobotic systems which can be used in drug screening, programmable tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biomimetic machine design. Geometric design and material properties of the hydrogel bio-bots were optimized using stereolithographic 3D printing. #3dprinting #technology
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 04:22:46 +0000