Biohybrid Robotics for Medicine and Beyond
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Small-scale robots have great potential to revolutionize modern medicine by enabling non-invasive medical interventions at hard-to-reach and delicate body locations. However, these robots are inherently limited in actuation, computation, control, and power storage due to space restrictions arising from the miniaturization of conventional robotic components, such as actuators, processors, and sensors. Therefore, it is crucial to develop new original design and fabrication strategies different from those used to build traditional large-scale robots to advance small-scale robots and facilitate their translation from benchtops to bedsides.
In this talk, I will introduce various strategies that benefit from living entities' intrinsic chemical and mechanical properties and the unique behaviors of composite (bio)materials for creating multifunctional small-scale robots. I will present several robot designs that are powered with microorganisms, long-range external forces, i.e., acoustic and magnetic, or tissue-engineered muscle constructs. I will conclude the talk with a stimulating discussion on a path forward toward biohybrid robotics at different length scales for medical applications and beyond.
Dr. Yasa is working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Soft Robotics Laboratory at Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich. He conducted his doctoral research activities at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany, and received his degree jointly from Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zurich.
His research lies at the interface of robotics, cell biology, and materials science, developing biohybrid robotic platforms for non-invasive medical operations at hard-to-reach locations inside the human body. He has authored more than 25 papers in reputable journals, including Science Robotics, PNAS, Advanced Materials, and ACS Nano, as well as two international patents.
Dr. Yasa is the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including the Holcim Stiftung Wissen Postdoctoral Fellowship and Max Planck Society PhD Fellowship. In addition, he serves as a Review Editor on the Editorial Board of Nano- and Microrobotics (specialty section of Frontiers in Materials and Frontiers in Robotics and AI).