Researchers from the University of Tokyo report they’ve just brought mankind one step closer to making the science fiction of cyborgs into science fact.
More accurately, a lot of steps, albeit from a pair of tiny legs.
The scientists have successfully created a pair of bio-hybrid walking legs that are made of human muscle tissue. Like ours do, they respond to electrical impulses to walk, hop and turn.
“Using muscle as actuators allows us to build a compact robot and achieve efficient, silent movements with a soft touch” as compared to a fully mechanical apparatus, Dr. Shoji Takeuchi says in a media release.
The researchers submerged the little legs in a fish tank, using a styrofoam float to keep the legs straight.
As of right now, the robot can walk at about 5.4 millimeters per minute — that’s .002 miles per hour — so it’s not breaking any Olympic records.
That said, the moving feet marked quite a feat.
“A cheer broke out during our regular lab meeting when we saw the robot successfully walk on the video,” Takeuchi says. “Though they might seem like small steps, they are, in fact, giant leaps forward for the biohybrid robots.”
Of course, many more advances need to be achieved before they make human-sized appendages: these include finding a way to integrate the electrodes that send signals to the lab-grown muscle tissues and a way to keep the muscles fed.