細思極恐! 日本科學家造出長肌肉機器人!

Researchers have developed a way to integrate living muscle into machines to create a biohybrid robot.

研究人員找到了一種把活體肌肉整合到機械上，從而製造出生物混合機器人的辦法。

The study was undertaken at the University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science and deMonstrates how the researchers developed the use of living tissue within robots, rather than just metal and plastic.

這項研究是在東京大學工業科學研究所進行的，它展示了科研人員如何在機器人身上培育和利用活體組織，而不僅僅是金屬和塑料。

The new method progresses from individual muscle precursor cells to muscle-cell-filled sheets, and then to fully functioning skeletal muscle tissues.

新方法從打造單個肌肉前體細胞開始，到充滿肌肉細胞的薄片，然後再到具有完全功能的骨骼肌組織。

They were able to incorporate these muscles into a robot as antagonistic pairs mimicking those in the body to achieve remarkable robot movement and continued muscle function for over a week.

他們能將這些肌肉整合到一個機器人上，作爲拮抗肌對模仿身體內的肌肉，實現顯著的機器人運動並維持了一週多的肌肉功能。

To develop the robots, the team first constructed a robot skeleton on which to install the pair of functioning muscles.

爲了研發這個機器人，該團隊首先構建了一個機器人骨架，用於安裝這對運動肌肉。

This included a rotatable joint, anchors where the muscles could attach and electrodes to provide the stimulus to induce muscle contraction.

這包括一個可旋轉的關節，肌肉可以附着的錨點，以及提供刺激誘發肌肉收縮的電極。

"If we can combine more of these muscles into a single device, we should be able to reproduce the complex muscular interplay that allows hands, arms, and other parts of the body to function," the lead author of the study, Yuya Morimoto, said.

研究第一作者森本雄矢表示：“如果我們能將更多像這樣的肌肉組合到一個裝置裏，就能夠重現讓雙手、胳膊和身體其他部位發揮作用的複雜肌肉運動。”