Tetanus-driven biohybrid multi-joint robots powered by muscle rings with enhanced contractile force

Biohybrid actuators utilizing muscle rings have been limited to twitching movements and are unsuitable for sustained contractile force applications. In this study, we developed muscle rings capable of generating high contractile forces under tetanus stimulation. By enhancing the rigidity of pillar-shaped supports and increasing myoblast density through reduced extracellular matrix, we promote the formation of dense, well-aligned muscle fiber bundles. The optimized muscle rings exhibit significantly higher contractile forces compared to traditional methods. Integrating these muscle rings with C-shaped anchors efficiently converts contractile force into bending motion. We demonstrate the application of these muscle rings in gripper and slither-type biohybrid robots, achieving large deformation and undulatory movement. This work advances biohybrid robotics by enabling sophisticated movements requiring continuous and powerful muscle contractions., , , # Tetanus-driven biohybrid multi-joint robots powered by muscle rings with enhanced contractile force

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866tjq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zpc866tjq)

## Abstract

Biohybrid actuators using muscle rings have typically been limited to twitching movements. In this study, we develop muscle rings that generate high contractile forces under tetanus stimulation by increasing support rigidity and myoblast density. These optimized muscle rings produced stronger forces and, when combined with C-shaped anchors, efficiently converted contraction into bending motion. We applied them to gripper and slither-type robots, enabling large deformation and continuous movement, advancing biohybrid robotics toward more powerful and sustained actuation.

This dataset represents the results of the experiments in this study. The file name corresponds to the figure number in the main text or the supplementary.

## Description of the data and file structure

### Purposes of all...,