2A1-N01 Study on Visual Feedback Control of Optogenetic Muscle-Powered Bioactuator(Microrobot & Micromachine)

Abstract

In our study, we used the dorsal vessel (DV, heart-like tissue) of Drosophila melanogaster (Dmel, fruit fly) larva as a bioactuator. This paper reports on the closed loop visual feedback system to control the contraction rates of the DV in vivo. We investigated the response of the DVs that express channelrhodopsin(ChR2) and/or halorhodopsin(NpHR) to blue and red light. We found that DV expressing ChR2 increased contraction rates under blue light stimulation, while DV expressing NpHR stopped contracting under red light stimulation. In our feedback experiments, we managed to keep the contraction frequency of the DV in vivo above an arbitrary threshold value using the visual feedback system we developed.