Industrial revolution of the 19th century marked the onset of the era of machines that transformed societies. However, these machines cannot self assemble or heal themselves. On the other hand, since the discovery of genes, there is a considerable body of knowledge on engineering living cells. It is now possible to envision biohybrid machines with engineered living cells and scaffolds. These machines may self assemble and emerge from complex interactions between the cells and the scaffolds at various hierarchical levels. In this talk we will present two elementary biohybrid machines. They are both small scale swimmers. One of the swimmers is powered by primary rat cardiomyocytes. These cells are plated without any patterning on a scaffold which consists of a head and a tail. The cells self-orient to maximize scaffold deformation, and synchronize their beating. As a result, the tail deforms periodically and propels the swimmer forward. As a first step towards intelligent machines, the second swimmer consists of optogenetic neurons and muscle cells. It‚Äôs scaffold consists of a head and two tails. The muscle cells self assemble into myotubes around the tails, while the neurons are hosted by the head. The neurons spontaneously send out long cables of axons preferentially towards the muscle forming functional neuro functional junctions. They also form a neural network within themselves. Upon shining light, the neurons fire synchronously in a periodic fashion. The muscle contracts and bends the tails to propel the swimmer. This new generation of swimmer powered by neurons paves the way towards intelligent biohybrid machines. The central role of mechanics in the emergence of the biohybrid machines will be highlighted.  

Emergent living robotics

The Virtual Technical Meeting of the Society of Engineering Science 2020 is the first fully virtual meeting of the SES community to envision and connect during the hiatus created by Covid-19, providing a platform for the exchange of ideas, and to showcase the latest research in the field of engineering science.

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