SCIENTISTS have created flesh-like mini robots which can move when they detect light.

The fleet of walking "bio-bots" are powered using muscle cells and controlled using electrical and optical pulses.

1 Skeletal muscle tissue is bonded to a 3D printed flexible skeleton Credit: Array

The sinewy robots are under a centimetre in size and made from 3D printed hydrogels and living cells.

Last year the researchers were able to make bots powered by rat's heart move.

Videos on YouTube show the bio-bots pulsing and wriggling in the lab.

They have been considered such a success that researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have released instructions for scientists to 3D print them in their own labs.

These bio-bot recipes are detailed in the paper A modular approach to the design, fabrication, and characterisation of muscle-powered biological machines.

Ritu Raman, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Bioengineering and first author of the paper said: "The protocol teaches every step of building a bio-bot, from 3D printing the skeleton to tissue engineering the skeletal muscle actuator, including manufacturers and part numbers for every single thing we use in the lab."

The tiny cell-based robots could change the way we design machines and systems.

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The paper states: "Biological machines consisting of cells and biomaterials have the potential to dynamically sense, process, respond, and adapt to environmental signals in real time."

That means that biological systems or machines of the future could one day assemble themselves or even self heal.

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