A soft robot senses chemicals using synthetic bacteria to direct robotic decision making. The integration of synthetic biology and soft robotics can fundamentally advance sensory, diagnostic, and therapeutic functionality of bioinspired machines. However, such integration is currently impeded by the lack of soft-matter architectures that interface synthetic cells with electronics and actuators for controlled stimulation and response during robotic operation. Here, we synthesized a soft gripper that uses engineered bacteria for detecting chemicals in the environment, a flexible light-emitting diode (LED) circuit for converting biological to electronic signals, and soft pneu-net actuators for converting the electronic signals to movement of the gripper. We show that the hybrid bio-LED-actuator module enabled the gripper to detect chemical signals by applying pressure and releasing the contents of a chemical-infused hydrogel. The biohybrid gripper used chemical sensing and feedback to make actionable decisions during a pick-and-place operation. This work opens previously unidentified avenues in soft materials, synthetic biology, and integrated interfacial robotic systems.

中文翻译：

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生物传感软机器人：通过集成的有机和无机界面自动解析化学信号

软机器人使用合成细菌感应化学物质，以指导机器人决策。合成生物学和软机器人技术的集成可以从根本上提高生物启发机器的感觉，诊断和治疗功能。但是，目前这种集成由于缺乏软物质体系结构而受到阻碍，该体系结构使合成细胞与电子设备和执行器对接，以在机器人操作过程中控制刺激和响应。在这里，我们合成了一种软夹具，该夹具使用工程细菌来检测环境中的化学物质；一个柔性发光二极管（LED）电路，用于将生物信号转换为电子信号；以及一个柔性气动执行器，用于将电子信号转换为生物信号的运动。抓手。我们显示，混合生物LED驱动器模块使抓具能够通过施加压力并释放注入化学物质的水凝胶的内容物来检测化学信号。生物混合抓取器在拾取和放置操作期间使用化学感应和反馈来做出可操作的决策。这项工作为软材料，合成生物学和集成的界面机器人系统开辟了以前无法确定的途径。