Aplysia Californica as a Novel Source of Material for Biohybrid Robots and Organic Machines

Aplysia californica is presented as a novel source of actuator and scaffold material for biohybrid robots. Collagen isolated from the Aplysia skin has been fabricated into gels and electrocompacted scaffolds. Additionally, the I2 muscle from the Aplysia buccal mass had been isolated for use as an organic actuator. This muscle has been characterized and the maximum force was found to be 58.5 mN with a maximum muscle strain of 12 +/- 3%. Finally, a flexible 3D printed biohybrid robot has been fabricated which is powered by the I2 muscle and is capable of locomotion at 0.43 cm/min under field stimulation.