MIT engineers build a paper-thin robot that swims on living muscle
In short
- The robot is paper-thin and steers through water.
- Living muscle cells contract when flashed with light.
- The team says the design could lead to small self-healing biological robots.
Why the Good News Desk likes this one
The robot uses living muscle cells as its power source, which lets it move and turn in water. The source describes the work as a breakthrough that could pave the way for self-healing biological robots. It is an early engineering result, so practical uses are still a future prospect.
From ScienceDaily
MIT engineers have built a paper-thin swimming robot powered by living muscle cells that respond to flashes of light, allowing it to swim and steer through water. The breakthrough could pave the way for tiny, self-healing biological robots capable of exploring fragile environments that ordinary machines cannot safely navigate.
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For kids
Scientists at MIT built a very thin robot that can swim. It moves because it has real muscle cells inside it. The cells squeeze when a light flashes, so the robot can swim and turn. Talk about it: What would you want a tiny swimming robot to explore?
