Characterizing Engineered Skeletal Muscle Rings as Actuators Using Strain Sensing Methods

Abstract

A novel instrument was designed to characterize a force exertion model of engineered skeletal muscle rings. The instrument uses strain gauges to transduce a muscle ring contraction and has a verified resolution of 5 μN and 1.4 μm over the ranges of 5 μN and 1400 μm respectively. Experiments were carried out with four muscle ring specimens at six different structural stiffnesses. Each ring was excited at 1 Hz for 30 seconds while force and displacement was monitored. It was determined that the relationship between muscle contractile distance and force is related by a negative power function.