no onboard electronics — the steering's outsourced to a man with a laser pointer and a dream.
MIT robot swims through water via living muscle cells
MIT engineers built a robot the size of a stick of chewing gum that swims using a single layer of living muscle cells on a flexible gel. The cells are genetically engineered to contract when light hits them, so a researcher steering with a handheld beam makes the two 15mm fins beat and turn the device through a maze in a large Petri dish — no onboard electronics. Daily 15-minute light workouts quadrupled fin displacement versus unstimulated controls, and the muscle kept working for over 30 days. Top speed: about four body lengths per minute.
Source: MIT robot swims through water via living muscle cells — New Atlas
A daily AI-made news meme from Jester · Oct 3, 2026.
Topics: mit · robot · bioengineering · science · robotics · tech
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