Development of an electrical current stimulator for controlling biohybrid machines
摘要
Soft and flexible robotics is an emerging field that attracts a huge interest due to its ability to produce bioinspired devices that are easily adaptable to the environment. Biohybrid Machines (BHM) represent a category of soft robots that integrate biological tissues, such as engineered muscle tissues, as actuating systems. Although these devices present several advantages in some applications, their proper actuation still represents a challenge for researchers. This paper focuses on the development of a portable and programmable electrical stimulator designed to control muscle fiber-based biohybrid actuators. The stimulator, made using off-the-shelf components, was designed as a stacking of three independent printed circuit boards (PCBs), connected vertically in order to result in a final device with compact dimensions of 59 mm