Abstract
If we regard skeletal muscle as an actuator, we see it has excellent flexibility and efficiency, properties that artificial actuators such as electric motors or mechanical engines do not have. We have been researching the creation of miniaturized bio-actuators that use cultured skeletal muscle. We reported that stimulation was very important to culture myoblast and to develop skeletal muscle. We obtained skeletal muscle by cultivating C2C12 cells using unidirectional mechanical stimulation. We developed a Bio-Actuator System as a mode for a skeletal muscle system in which this cultured skeletal muscle was used as actuator unit. This Bio-Actuator System was made to imitate the musculoskeletal system and consisted of one joint, two arms, one flexor muscle and one extensor muscle. One arm was fixed on the base, and the other arm was able to rotate freely about the joint axis. Because skeletal muscle can only contract, we used cultured skeletal muscle as flexor muscle and sliced silicon elastic sheet as extensor muscle. Experiments were conducted with this Bio-Actuator System in a culture medium. By applying pulsed voltage to the culture medium, the bio-actuator unit was contracted and relaxed. By repeating these contractions and expansions, we observed that the tip of the arm vibrated periodically.
