Aplysia Californica as a Novel Source of Material for Biohybrid Robots and Organic Machines
Aplysia californica is presented as a novel source of actuator and scaffold material for biohybrid robots. Collagen isolated from the Aplysia skin has been fabricated into gels and electrocompacted scaffolds. Additionally, the I2 muscle from the Aplysia b
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Abstract. Aplysia californica is presented as a novel source of actuator and scaffold material for biohybrid robots. Collagen isolated from the Aplysia skin has been fabricated into gels and electrocompacted scaffolds. Additionally, the I2 muscle from the Aplysia buccal mass had been isolated for use as an organic actuator. This muscle has been characterized and the maximum force was found to be 58.5 mN with a maximum muscle strain of 12 ± 3 %. Finally, a flexible 3D printed biohybrid robot has been fabricated which is powered by the I2 muscle and is capable of locomotion at 0.43 cm/min under field stimulation.
Keywords: Biohybrid devices Aplysia californica
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Organic actuators
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Biorobotics
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Introduction
The field of biohybrid devices involves the combination of synthetic substrates with living tissue in order to produce a functioning device. A common application of such devices is in the area of biohybrid robotics. By seeding contractile cells on synthetic or organic polymers, researchers are able to produce devices using thin films for lab-on-chip style testing [1–4], or even devices capable of swimming [5,6], and crawling [7–11]. Recent efforts in the area of biohybrid robotics and the development of organic actuators have focused on mammalian [5–10] or avian [11] contractile cells to serve as actuators. However, both mammalian and avian cells require precise pH, temperature, osmotic balances, and CO2 levels. Such requirements make these devices difficult to fabricate and maintain, and limit their applicability beyond the lab. A few studies have investigated the possibility of using frog [12] or insect [13,14] muscle to power biohybrid devices. Instead, we propose Aplysia californica as a potential source for contractile tissue using the I2 muscle and scaffold material, using isolated collagen-like material from the skin. Aplysia californica is a species of sea slug native to the southern coast of California whose range extends into Mexico. c Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 N.F. Lepora et al. (Eds.): Living Machines 2016, LNAI 9793, pp. 365–374, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-42417-0 33
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These animals live in the intertidal and sub-littoral zones of the photic zone and as a consequence can be subjected to large temperature changes as well as changes in the surrounding salt water environment [15]. As a result, Aplysia californica are very robust, making them an ideal candidate for use in biohybrid robotics. In order to build biohybrid devices, suitable scaffolds are needed. Such scaffolds should be strong enough to allow handling and assembly, while being deformable enough to allow the muscle to deflect the substrate. In this study, we present a basic characterization of the I2 muscle as well as a protocol for isolating collagen from the skin. Additionally, biobots powered by the I2 muscle have been 3D printed using flexible polymeric resin.
Fig. 1. Right: Aplysia californica. Left: a diagram of the relevant anatomy of the Aplysia. The I2 muscle (red) has been highl
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