Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
Scientists at MIT made a very small robot. It is as thin as a piece of paper. It swims in water.
The robot has two fins. The fins have living muscle cells on them. When light shines on a fin, the muscle moves.
A scientist used a light to guide the robot through a small water maze. The robot is slow, but this is a new step.
- robot
- A machine that can do jobs.
- thin
- Not thick.
- swim
- To move through water.
- fin
- A flat part that helps move in water.
- muscle
- The part of the body that moves bones.
- maze
- A place with many paths where it is easy to get lost.
- guide
- To show the way.
- slow
- Not fast.
Level 2 - Elementary
Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have built a swimming robot that is only about half a millimeter thick. Its body is a soft gel film with two fins, and each fin is covered with a layer of living muscle cells.
The cells have been changed so that they squeeze when light hits them. When researchers shine light on one fin, it beats. When they switch the light between the two fins, the robot turns. There are no batteries or electronics on board.
The robot can move about four body lengths a minute, and in a test it followed a moving light through a small underwater maze. It is much slower than a human swimmer. The team, led by Ritu Raman, wants to make it faster and hopes such robots could one day explore delicate places.
- millimeter
- One thousandth of a meter.
- gel
- A soft, jelly-like material.
- layer
- A single covering over a surface.
- cells
- The tiny building blocks of living things.
- electronics
- Small parts that use electricity to control a machine.
- on board
- Carried inside the machine.
- delicate
- Easily damaged.
- lead
- To guide a group or project.
Level 3 - Intermediate
A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a biohybrid robot, a machine made partly of living tissue. The device is a gel film roughly half a millimeter thick with two fins, each coated in a single layer of muscle cells that have been genetically engineered to contract when exposed to light.
Because the muscle responds to light, the robot can be steered from outside the dish with no onboard electronics. Lighting one fin makes it beat, and alternating the light between the fins makes the robot turn. In a demonstration it followed a light held by a researcher through a small underwater maze, reaching top speeds of about four body lengths a minute.
The researchers admit that this is much slower than a human swimmer. The group, led by Ritu Raman, plans to optimize the design for speed. They suggest that future versions could investigate fragile or unpredictable environments. The work was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research.
- biohybrid
- Made of both living and non-living parts.
- tissue
- A group of cells working together.
- genetically engineered
- Changed at the level of genes.
- contract
- To tighten, as a muscle does.
- steer
- To control the direction of movement.
- demonstration
- A show of how something works.
- optimize
- To make as effective as possible.
- unpredictable
- Hard to know ahead of time.
Level 4 - Advanced
Engineers at MIT have demonstrated a swimming biohybrid robot only about half a millimeter thick, a gel film with two fins whose surfaces are lined with a single layer of genetically engineered muscle cells that contract in response to light. The design sidesteps the usual machinery of robotics: there are no batteries, wires or onboard electronics, and the entire control system is a beam of light delivered from outside the dish.
Illuminating one fin makes it beat, and alternating the beam between the two fins lets the operator turn the swimmer. In a demonstration, the robot tracked a light moved by a researcher through a small underwater maze at a top speed of roughly four body lengths a minute, a pace the team concedes is well below that of a human swimmer.
The group, led by Ritu Raman, intends to refine the body shape to raise its speed, and it envisages future versions probing fragile or unpredictable environments where conventional machines would struggle. The study, published in late September, was funded in part by the Office of Naval Research and is part of a broader push to build machines from living components.
- sidestep
- To avoid a problem or an obstacle.
- illuminate
- To light up.
- operator
- A person who controls a machine.
- concede
- To admit something reluctantly.
- refine
- To improve by making small changes.
- envisage
- To imagine as a future possibility.
- probe
- To investigate closely.
- conventional
- Based on traditional methods.
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