Abstract
The Bio-actuators using living cells or tissue cannot work outside culture medium. Therefore, the limitation of bio-actuator's operating environment is difficult problem compared to conventional micro actuator. To solve this problem, we focus on packaging of insect dorsal vessel and its culture medium. The bio-actuator using insect dorsal vessel would work outside culture medium by packaging of insect dorsal vessel and its culture medium. As a method of packaging, we utilize the encapsulation using cross-linking of alginate gel. The culture medium capsule was prepared by dropping altered TC-100 insect medium which has high calcium ion concentration into alginate sodium solution. It was confirmed that the insect dorsal vessel was normally cultured in the altered TC-100 insect medium. Finally, we designed micro-manipulator using contracting force of insect dorsal vessel.
