GoKawiilMIT builds light-controlled swimming robot powered by living muscle cells
MIT researchers created a gum-stick-sized robot with a flexible gel body and two thin fins coated in genetically modified muscle cells that contract when exposed to light. By targeting light at either fin and varying its frequency, the team can steer the robot's direction and speed, and it successfully navigated a small underwater maze at a top speed of about four body lengths per minute.
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The design is described as the first thin, flat biohybrid robot that moves using living tissue rather than relying on the bulkier three-dimensional muscle structures common in earlier biohybrid robots. Study author Ritu Raman suggests thinner designs could lower the number of cells and manufacturing effort needed to build such robots, which could make biohybrid robotics more practical to produce at scale.
- Robot uses a single thin layer of light-responsive muscle cells to flap fins and swim.
- Light direction and frequency let researchers control the robot's speed and steering.
- It swam a maze at roughly 4 body lengths per minute, comparable to a leisurely cow shark.
Source: sciencedaily.com, 2026-10-23
Published there as: “MIT scientists build a tiny robot that swims using living muscle cells”
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