This research is aimed at putting a coating on the titanium or cobalt steel implants that are used to repair massive damage to bone.  By layering the surface with a bone-like ceramic it is hoped that adhesion and biocompatibility will be improved.

Article

Much of biomimicry in the fields of microfluidics and adhesion relies on fabricating and manipulating the surface energy at very small size scales. This patent is for a method that deposits hydrophobic or hydrophilic coating in a very precise way.

We have developed an improved vapor-phase deposition method and apparatus for the application of layers and coatings on various substrates. The method and apparatus are useful in the fabrication of biotechnologically functional devices, Bio-MEMS devices, and in the fabrication of microfluidic devices for biological applications.

Link to patent description

Robert Hyers of UMASS Amherst has patented a method for making a highly porous hydroxyapatite construct.  Why is this a good thing you might ask.  Well, bone is a porous hydroxyapatite construct — currently when someone needs a bigger piece of bone than their body can manufacture to repair a gap a section of cadaveric material or non-biological titanium or stainless steel is inserted.  It would be far better for everyone if a correctly sized chunk of non-reactive, biocompatible, porous material could be stuck in place, later to be repaired and remodeled by osteocytes.

This fabrication method is certainly an advance. I can’t tell yet whether it will be useful in anything like the near term.

Hyer’s lab web page

It looks like the first substantive papers on Min Jun Kim’s research are in review at prestigious journals.  Kim has fabricated microfluidics devices that use the bacterial flagellum as a mixing or pumping element.  The downside is the fluid must not only be biocompatible, but it will be scavenged by the bacteria for nutrients.  The upside is the power and size scale of these pumps. 

We were interested in utilizing flagellated bacteria as elements of a microfluidic systems, such as chaotic mixer, fludic pump, and micro-transportation system. Flagellar bacteria are propelled by a number of flagella, which are rotated by a nano-scale molecular motor embedded in the cell body.

In an abstract at the NanoScience and Technology meetings Kim writes -

…we show that (i) the flow-deposition of bacteria can successfully create a live bacterial carpet to generate local fluid motion inside a microfabricated system; (ii), that the carpet-activated microfluidic system can be used not only to enhance mixing in the closed system but also to pump fluid autonomously for several hours and (iii), that the pumping performance of the system changes in response to modifications to the chemical and thermal environment of the bacteria. Such bacterial systems are (to our knowledge) the first demonstrations of biological actuation of an engineered microfluidic system. The robustness, ease of “manufacture” and the ability to genetically modify their behavior make such systems highly attractive for powering microfluidic devices.

Kim’s Publication List

New Scientist article on Kim’s research

NSTI Abstract

Flow through biological nanotubes - blood vessels for example - happens with very little resistance. Imitating this low resistance in very small pipes has been elusive.  Bruce Hinds’ group has made a major advance by treating the nanotube core to make it highly hydrophobic. This apparently changes the flow regime in the tube dropping resistance by 5 fold over expectations from theory.  The tubes do seem to clog up pretty quickly, but this is a very promising first step.

PubMed Abstract

 Japanese researchers have coupled a control system to a live cockroach.  Appartenrtly they are having some problems with the interface to the control system.  Random cell phone users are making the roach misbehave!

Article

The best avenue for preliminary biomimetics research funding is still the governement. The German equivalent of the US National Science Foudnation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) just announced its new ‘Priority Programs’.  Among them, under the engineering rather than natural science was this project:

Interaction and lasting dialogue between biologists and engineering scientists forms the heart of the Priority Programme “Natural and technological flow control”. The scientists and researchers involved in the programme aim to translate examples from nature into technical applications, a process known as bionics or biomimetics. The use of biological surface structures reduces the flow resistance of objects such as turbine blades, around which flow takes place, as well as minimising noise levels. Engineering science, for its part, inspires new methods and leads to new findings in life sciences. (Coordinator: Prof. Cameron Tropea, Technical University of Darmstadt)

 Press release

Joeseph Ayres at Norteastern, the same fellow with the robot lobster, has another aquatic bot.  This one is modeled on a lamprey.  It is easier to model a lamprey than other fish because they do not have a heavily segmented vertebral column. It is perfectly appropriate to approximate them as a strip of bendy plastic, which is just what Ayres does.  The actuators are shape memory metal (Nitinol) and the power and control come through a tether.  This one is not swimming free any time soon.  Control is provided through oscillatory finite state machines that produce a wonderful wave along the body while rather faithfully recreating the activation patterns that might be seen in the muscles of a swimming lamprey. 

Web Site

Gavin Miller has been building robotic snakes for at least 6 years.  As he is not an academic researcher he has documented his progress in some detail on his website.  The descriptions of control and fabrication difficulties are interesting and give some feel for the frustrating nature of biomimetic robotics research. It is easy to bite off too much when moving from one generation of prototype to the next, as he writes in the summary for Snake 6

Joseph Ayers at Northeastern University has a different take on biomimetic robotics.  Hos model for looks and locomotion is the American lobster (Homarus americanus).  The twist to his research is that he builds the locomotor control from first principals of mathematics.  Using the concept of a ‘finite state’ machine to send the walking signals to the legs he is essentially designing an artificial neural system. 

Robot Website