“It could inspire a whole new class of cardiac therapies, such as improved ventricular assist devices that mimic natural heart motion.”
In the heart, as in the movies, 3D action beats the 2D experience hands down.
In 3D, healthy hearts do their own version of the twist. Rather than a simple pumping action, they circulate blood as if they were wringing a towel. The bottom of the heart twists as it contracts in a counterclockwise direction while the top twists clockwise. Scientists call this the left ventricular twist—and it can be used as an indicator of heart health.
The heart is not alone. The human body is replete with examples of soft muscular systems that bend, twist, extend, and flex in complex ways. Engineers have long sought to design robotic systems with the requisite actuation systems that can perform similar tasks, but these have fallen short.
Now a team of researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has developed a low-cost, programmable soft actuated material that gives renewed hope to the mission. They demonstrated the material’s potential by using it to replicate the biological motion of the heart, and also developed a matching 3D computer model of it, as reported in Advanced Materials.
“Most models of the heart used today do not mimic its 3D motion,” said lead author Ellen Roche, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at SEAS who is also affiliated with the Wyss Institute. “They only take flow into account.”
What’s missing is the essential twisting motion that the heart uses to pump blood efficiently.
“We drew our inspiration for the soft actuated material from the elegant design of the heart,” said Wyss Core Faculty member Conor Walsh, Ph.D., the senior author, who is also an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at SEAS and founder of the Harvard Biodesign Lab. “This approach could inspire better surgical training tools and implantable heart devices, and opens new possibilities in the emerging field of soft robotics for devices that assist other organs as well.”
The heart moves the way it does because of its bundles of striated muscle fibers, which are oriented spirally in the same direction and work together to effect motion.
The Latest on: Soft Robotics
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Soft Robotics” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Soft Robotics
- Project CETI develops robotics to make sperm whale tagging more humaneon April 14, 2024 at 4:59 am
Project CETI is using robotics, machine learning, biology, linguistics, natural language processing, and more to decode whale communications.
- Soft Robotics appoints new Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Barbara Mazzolai, PhDon April 12, 2024 at 9:02 am
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is pleased that Barbara Mazzolai, PhD, has been appointed the new Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the bimonthly journal Soft Robotics. Dr. Mazzolai joins Barry Trimmer ...
- Muscle tissue harvested from mice cells move ‘biohybrid’ robotson April 10, 2024 at 6:57 am
In particular, the field of soft robotics -- with its flexible and compliant components – owes a lot to animal biology. Researchers are working to bring flexible elements to create locomotion for ...
- Research could advance soft robotics manufacturing and designon March 18, 2024 at 9:21 am
Soft robots use pliant materials such as elastomers to interact safely with the human body and other challenging, delicate objects and environments. A team of Rice University researchers has ...
- Rice research could advance soft robotics manufacturing, designon March 18, 2024 at 8:17 am
HOUSTON – (March 18, 2024) – Soft robots use pliant materials such as elastomers to interact safely with the human body and other challenging, delicate objects and environments. A team of Rice ...
- Soft robot fingers that can carefully squeeze without sensorson February 13, 2024 at 6:38 am
More information: Shibo Zou et al, A retrofit sensing strategy for soft fluidic robots, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44517-z Provided by AMOLF ...
- Crazy new spy robot gathers intelligence and then melts into a puddleon March 18, 2023 at 7:33 am
The design of such a robot is highlighted in a paper currently published in the journal Matter. According to the paper, the soft robot could collect intelligence as well as take care of other ...
- MIT is developing a soft robot that takes its inspiration from sea turtleson February 28, 2023 at 4:00 pm
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may ...
- Soft Roboticson May 1, 2022 at 5:01 pm
Sometimes nature provides the best blueprints for building effective robots. It also can provide the best material. Billions of years of natural selection has built some pretty impressive machinery, s ...
- This robot made of magnetic slime is gross, but brillianton April 4, 2022 at 8:05 am
Scientists hope to one day be able to use the “soft robot” to enter the human body and remove items from hard-to-reach places. In a tweet shared by New Scientist, you can watch as the slime ...
via Bing News