MIT team builds paper-thin, two-finned robot powered by muscle cells that can swim through underwater mazes

An MIT team published in Advanced Functional Materials a paper-thin, two-finned swimming robot powered by a single layer of living muscle cells that can follow light to swim through a simple underwater maze. The robot's skeleton is a GelMA gel film about the size of a stick of gum and roughly half a millimeter thick, stamped with square recessed grooves on its underside; muscle cells on its surface are genetically engineered to twitch in response to light, and researchers steer direction and speed by alternately illuminating the two fins, with the robot able to swim about 4 times its body length in one minute at its fastest.