Xu Nicole W, Townsend James P, Costello John H, Colin Sean P, Gemmell Brad J, Dabiri John O
Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Graduate Aerospace Laboratories (GALCIT), California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Bio Protoc. 2021 Apr 5;11(7):e3974. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3974.
Biohybrid robotics is a growing field that incorporates both live tissues and engineered materials to build robots that address current limitations in robots, including high power consumption and low damage tolerance. One approach is to use microelectronics to enhance whole organisms, which has previously been achieved to control the locomotion of insects. However, the robotic control of jellyfish swimming offers additional advantages, with the potential to become a new ocean monitoring tool in conjunction with existing technologies. Here, we delineate protocols to build a self-contained swim controller using commercially available microelectronics, embed the device into live jellyfish, and calculate vertical swimming speeds in both laboratory conditions and coastal waters. Using these methods, we previously demonstrated enhanced swimming speeds up to threefold, compared to natural jellyfish swimming, in laboratory and experiments. These results offered insights into both designing low-power robots and probing the structure-function of basal organisms. Future iterations of these biohybrid robotic jellyfish could be used for practical applications in ocean monitoring.
生物混合机器人技术是一个不断发展的领域，它将活组织和工程材料结合起来，制造出能够解决当前机器人存在的局限性（包括高功耗和低损伤耐受性）的机器人。一种方法是利用微电子技术增强整个生物体，此前已经实现了对昆虫运动的控制。然而，对水母游动的机器人控制具有额外的优势，有可能与现有技术结合成为一种新的海洋监测工具。在这里，我们描述了使用市售微电子设备构建一个独立的游泳控制器、将该设备嵌入活水母体内以及在实验室条件和沿海水域计算垂直游动速度的方案。利用这些方法，我们之前在实验室实验中证明，与自然游动的水母相比，水母的游动速度提高了两倍。这些结果为设计低功耗机器人和探究基础生物体的结构功能提供了见解。这些生物混合机器人水母的未来迭代版本可用于海洋监测的实际应用。
