Biohybrid hand actuated by multiple human muscle tissues

Cultured muscle tissue serves as a power source in biohybrid robots that demonstrate diverse motions. However, current designs typically only drive simple substrates on a small scale, limiting flexibility and controllability. To address this, we proposed a biohybrid hand with multi-jointed fingers powered by multiple muscle tissue actuators (MuMuTAs), bundles of thin muscle tissues. The MuMuTA can provide linear actuation with high contractile force (~8 mN) and high contractile length (~4 mm), which can be converted into the flexion of multi-jointed fingers by a cable-driven mechanism. We successfully powered the biohybrid hand achieving individual control of fingers and a variety of motions using different signaling controls. This study showcases the potential of MuMuTA as a driving source for advanced biohybrid robotics.