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Phoenix666 writes:

New Atlas:

Scientists at Linköping University have blurred the line between robot and organism by developing an artificial muscle that runs off of glucose and oxygen like its organic counterpart. Made of a special polymer, the new plastic muscles open the promise of implantable artificial muscles and micro-robots that can be powered like living organs.
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the Linköping team led by Edwin Jager, senior lecturer in Sensor and Actuator Systems in the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, turned to muscles made out of a "polymer actuator" made from polypyrrole.
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To make an artificial muscle, the researchers formed the polymer into two layers with a thin membrane between them. When a charge is developed on one side, the ions in the polymer are expelled across the membrane and the sheet shrinks. Meanwhile, the sheet on the other side absorbs the electrons and expands. This makes the whole thing bend like a contracting muscle.

According to Linköping, this charge can be applied from a battery, but it can also be derived from glucose and oxygen by doping the polymer with enzymes that enhance the reaction, burning the glucose for energy the same as a muscle does.

What would you do with artificial muscles?

Original Submission