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Biosyncretic robots composed of living and synthetic materials have garnered significant attention due to their high energy conversion efficiency, good biocompatibility and human‐robot interaction safety. Among common living actuation materials, artificial skeletal muscle tissue (ASMT) stands out for its good size scalability, controllability, and potential high driving force. However, due to the low differentiation efficiency of myoblasts, the performance of ASMT lags behind that of natural skeletal muscle tissue, thereby hindering the progress of biosyncretic robots. Here, inspired by the training mode of human skeletal muscle, an electromechanical co‐stimulation system for enhancing the performance of ASMTs is proposed. This system is capable of simultaneously applying electrical and mechanical stimulation to ASMTs. Moreover, the mechanical resistance can be dynamically adjusted during ASMT growth based on real‐time measurements of the contractile force of the ASMT. The results show that the enhanced ASMTs demonstrate improved differentiation and performance and can actuate a robot at a maximum speed of 2.38 mm s−1, which is faster than those of most currently reported ASMT‐based robots. This study introduces a novel approach for enhancing the performance of ASMTs, with substantial implications for the fields of biosyncretic robots and tissue engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creatures in nature perform a variety of activities through adhesion behavior, including moving flexibly and quickly on inclined and vertical walls and even ceilings. Studying the physical and chemical mechanisms underlying their adhesion behaviors can provide effective templates for applications such as climbing robots, grippers, and medical devices. This review summarizes various major types of adhesion that creatures rely on and their morphological structures that enhance adhesion, in addition to discussing their inspiration regarding the design of bionic adhesion systems. First, different adhesion types adopted by creatures in various natural environments are introduced, and the adhesion mechanisms and their theoretical models are summarized. Subsequently, the convergent evolution exhibited in biological adhesion structures is summarized from three perspectives: size limitation, compliance, and fluid transport. The development of the bionic design process wherein researchers imitate the natural biological adhesion process to create artificial adhesives is then presented regarding three mechanisms: chemical bonding adhesives, fiber arrays, and suckers. Fiber arrays are further divided into dry adhesives and wet adhesives. Finally, the shortcomings of the existing bionic adhesion systems and future trends are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, biosyncretic robots, a novel type of robot that integrates living and artificial materials, have gained significant attention. Biosyncretic robots are expected to leverage the advantages provided by living materials and offer a new approach to address the challenges faced by traditional robots, such as biocompatibility, intrinsic safety, and miniaturization. Therefore, this review aims to provide an overview of the current state of development of biosyncretic robots. First, the existing research on biosyncretic robots based on commonly used living materials is systematically categorized and introduced, including cardiomyocytes, skeletal muscle cells, insect dorsal vascular tissue, and microorganisms. Subsequently, their potential in the fields of in vivo medical diagnosis and treatment, organ‐on‐a‐chip, tissue engineering, environmental monitoring, and postdisaster rescue in detail is also discussed. Finally, the current challenges faced by biosyncretic robotic research, including establishing theoretical models, fabrication, cultivation, and maintenance of living materials, controllability, versatility, artificial material, and entering the human body or leaving the laboratory, are examined. This review summarizes the cutting‐edge progress of biosyncretic robots and provides insights into their future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft actuators based on smart materials can utilize external stimuli, especially clean energy sources such as light and humidity in nature, to achieve controllable actuation and perception, which has attracted much attention in the development of smart robots. However, most existing soft actuators based on light or humidity stimulation may suffer from several shortcomings, such as low response sensitivity, a single response mode, and an inability to achieve a multi-stimulus cooperative response. Hence, inspired by the biological structure of plants, we have fabricated soft double-layer actuators with ultrahigh sensitivity by casting a graphene oxide (GO) solution on a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film. With just 40 mW cm−2 of NIR light, the actuator can quickly change from the curled state to the flat state, achieving an angle change of 500°, which is less than the natural light intensity (80 mW cm−2). Moreover, the actuator also showed a rapid response (∼2.6 s) and large deformation (500°) under humidity stimulation. As an application concept demonstration, the actuator can be assembled into a crawling robot that mimics inchworms crawling on a leaf, an adaptive soft gripper that grabs different shapes of cargo, and a rotating robot driving a boat forward. The soft actuator will have great potential in smart bionics, energy conversion, and other emerging fields in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft underwater swimming robots actuated by smart materials have unique advantages in exploring the ocean, such as low noise, high flexibility, and friendly environment interaction ability. However, most of them typically exhibit limited swimming speed and flexibility due to the inherent characteristics of soft actuation materials. The actuation method and structural design of soft robots are key elements to improve their motion performance. Inspired by the muscle actuation and swimming mechanism of natural fish, a fast-swimming soft robotic fish actuated by a bionic muscle actuator made of dielectric elastomer is presented. The results show that by controlling the two independent actuating units of a biomimetic actuator, the robotic fish can not only achieve continuous C-shaped body motion similar to natural fish but also have a large bending angle (maximum unidirectional angle is about 40°) and thrust force (peak thrust is about 14 mN). In addition, the coupling relationship between the swimming speed and actuating parameters of the robotic fish is established through experiments and theoretical analysis. By optimizing the control strategy, the robotic fish can demonstrate a fast swimming speed of 76 mm/s (0.76 body length/s), which is much faster than most of the reported soft robotic fish driven by nonbiological soft materials that swim in body and/or caudal fin propulsion mode. What's more, by applying programmed voltage excitation to the actuating units of the bionic muscle, the robotic fish can be steered along specific trajectories, such as continuous turning motions and an S-shaped routine. This study is beneficial for promoting the design and development of high-performance soft underwater robots, and the adopted biomimetic mechanisms, as well as actuating methods, can be extended to other various flexible devices and soft robots.

Bio-syncretic robots consisting of artificial structures and living muscle cells have attracted much attention owing to their potential advantages, such as high drive efficiency, miniaturization, and compatibility. Motion controllability, as an important factor related to the main performance of bio-syncretic robots, has been explored in numerous studies. However, most of the existing bio-syncretic robots still face challenges related to the further development of steerable kinematic dexterity. In this study, a bionic optimized biped fully soft bio-syncretic robot actuated by two muscle tissues and steered with a direction-controllable electric field generated by external circularly distributed multiple electrodes has been developed. The developed bio-syncretic robot could realize wirelessly steerable motion and effective transportation of microparticle cargo on artificial polystyrene and biological pork tripe surfaces. This study may provide an effective strategy for the development of bio-syncretic robots and other related studies, such as nonliving soft robot design and muscle tissue engineering.