Japanese research team develops world’s largest 'biohybrid' robot hand
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A research team from the University of Tokyo and Waseda University announced Thursday that it has developed the largest-ever “biohybrid” hand that includes parts made of cultivated human tissue.
Led by Xinzhu Ren and Shoji Takeuchi from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, and Yuya Morimoto, an associate professor at Waseda University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering, the team engineered a multijointed robotic hand with movement powered by living muscle tissue, measuring 18 centimeters long, with a palm size of 6 centimeters — around the same size as a newborn’s — and five fingers capable of independent motion.
The team’s findings were published in the online edition of Science Robotics.
The key innovation lies in the team’s newly developed multiple muscle tissue actuator, a high-performance muscle structure made by bundling extremely thin strands of cultured human tissue into a “sushi roll” formation to act as one larger muscle.
This design ensures each strand receives sufficient nutrients, preventing necrosis and maintaining muscle fiber alignment. These issues have been an obstacle to increasing the thickness of conventional biohybrid activators, which have typically been limited to around 1 centimeter in size and able to activate only a single joint. The new design makes it feasible to achieve longer contraction distances and a higher contraction force and rate.
In the project, the skeletal framework and artificial muscles operate while submerged in a culture solution inside a tank. When stimulated with electricity, the muscles contract, pulling fine wires that bend the fingers. The system mimics human muscle fatigue: after about 10 minutes of movement, the muscles weaken, but they recover after an hour by absorbing sugar from the solution.
By integrating the actuator with a robotic skeletal structure, the researchers demonstrated complex finger motions, including the ability to replicate gestures and manipulate small objects such as pipette tips with precision. While the hand cannot yet grasp or hold heavier objects, the breakthrough offers potential applications beyond robotics, including muscle-driven prosthetic limbs and models for drug testing.
“A major goal of biohybrid robotics is to mimic biological systems. ... Our development (of the actuator) is an important milestone for achieving this,” said Takeuchi.
“The field of biohybrid robotics is still in its infancy, with many foundational challenges to overcome. Once these basic hurdles are addressed, this technology could be used in advanced prosthetics and could also serve as a tool for understanding how muscle tissues function in biological systems, to test surgical procedures or drugs targeting muscle tissues.”
