Articulated Biohybrid Hand Powered by Multiple Muscle Tissue Actuators

We proposed a biohybrid hand with multiple joints powered by multiple muscle tissue actuators (MuMuTA). To move a multi-joint linkage mechanism, significant contractile force and a large contractile length are required to overcome joint friction and to support the rotations of multiple joints, respectively. MuMuTA, with the capability to provide high output force and its substantial contractile length, is expected to meet these requirements. Using the MuMuTA as a driving source, we successfully rotated fingers with three joints. We believe that hands with multiple joints capable of complex actions will be applicable to implementing biomimetic models in vitro.