Teleoperated muscle-powered micro gripper controlled by electromyogram

We have fabricated a muscle-powered micro gripper controlled by electromyogram (EMG) signals as one step toward development of a teleoperated micromanipulator. We utilized human muscles EMG signals as the master control and tissue-engineered skeletal muscles as the slave actuator. This muscle-to-muscle interface for master-slave control is useful for improvement of teleoperated micromanipulation. We designed the SU-8 micro gripper and fabricated tissue-engineered skeletal muscles which have similar properties to natural muscles. Moreover, we successfully teleoperated the displacement of the muscle-powered micro gripper with EMG signals of a human.