Co-optimized volumetric muscle design for large dynamic deformations in versatile biohybrid robots

Abstract

Biohybrid robots use engineered living muscle tissue as actuators, offering self-organization, adaptability, and self-healing. Current designs focus on improving muscle physiology but overlook the interplay between muscle and scaffold in the robot’s function. We present a computational and experimental pipeline to co-optimize the form and function of centimeter-scale bioactuators. Using a soft-body simulation framework, we modeled unified muscle–scaffold systems and applied an evolutionary algorithm and targeted parameter sweeps to maximize range of motion. The resulting bioactuators, fabricated by integrating skeletal muscle tissue with microgrooved hydrogel scaffolds, feature a continuous interface enabling efficient force transmission and large, rapid deformations. They achieved up to an eleven-fold increase in range of motion over previous designs of similar muscle volume, powering robots capable of jumping, swimming, walking, and gripping, and scalable into multi-unit systems. By unifying modeling, optimization, and fabrication, we demonstrate how such a pipeline accelerates the development of high-performance biohybrid robots. The authors combine computer simulation and experimental fabrication to co-design living muscle and its scaffold, optimizing the range of motion of bioactuators to power biohybrid robots that can jump, swim, walk and grip.