Manipulating Stiffness of Biomechanical Systems to Train Muscle

Abstract

A new design for the skeleton of biohybrid robots, millimeter scale soft robots powered by engineered muscle actuators, was developed to provide a binary change in stiffness. Two variations of the design were created, one using elastic 50A resin and the other PDMS. The elastic 50A resin design was fabricated successfully. The design uses a manually placed stiffening beam to create the desired change in stiffness. This would allow for the determination of the effects of training with higher stiffnesses after muscle differentiation. These biohybrid robots provide a test bed for studying engineered skeletal muscle and contribute to potential future applications in tissue engineering and biomechanical devices.