Jointless Tongue‐Like Bioactuator for Multidirectional Motion Through Directional Electrical Stimulation
Abstract
Cultured muscle tissues have been integrated with artificial structures to construct biohybrid robots capable of diverse soft movements. However, most existing designs depend on artificial skeletons, limiting their flexibility and biomimetic potential. In this study, we propose a jointless, tongue‐like bioactuator composed entirely of skeletal muscle tissues. Inspired by the human tongue's multidirectional muscle architecture, vertically and horizontally aligned muscle tissues were assembled orthogonally. By exploiting the anisotropic responsiveness of muscle to directional electrical stimulation, the actuator exhibited distinct multidirectional motion patterns—swinging and lateral compression under horizontal stimulation, and swinging with enhanced linear contraction under vertical stimulation. Motion trajectory analysis confirmed that these multiaxis movements could be precisely controlled by tuning the direction and strength of stimulation. These results demonstrate that the configuration of orthogonally aligned muscle tissues can drive versatile multidirectional motion without rigid frameworks, providing a fully biological and biomimetic approach for achieving complex, multidegree‐of‐freedom actuation in muscle‐based biohybrid systems.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Advanced Materials and Mechanics
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
Micro and Nano Robotics
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Advanced Intelligent Systems
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 4
- Publication date
- 27 January 2026
- Language
- EN