Bio‐hybrids: When Robots Come Alive

Bio-hybrid robots are engineered systems that integrate living biological components (such as cells, tissues, or microorganisms) with synthetic structures to enable sensing, actuation, and adaptive behaviors beyond the reach of conventional machines. This merging of the animate and the artificial blurs boundaries, crafting systems where biology is not merely mimicked, but embodied and active. Bio-hybrid robotics invites life itself into the circuit, creating entities that sense, grow, adapt, and participate. These systems take heterogeneous forms, from muscle cells that contract to drive motion in bio-actuators to microbial communities that serve as engines of locomotion or computation. What began as scientific curiosity has become a field reshaping our notions of intelligence, adaptability, and materiality, where the robot becomes more than a machine: it becomes a host for biological intelligence, a platform for co-evolution, and a mirror reflecting our evolving concepts of agency, autonomy, and design. The contributions featured in this special issue, “Bio-hybrids: When Robots Come Alive,” showcase the diversity and ingenuity of bio-hybrid robotics, from microrobots animated by bacterial activity to proprioceptive muscle-driven actuators and insect-machine cyborgs. Together, these works paint a compelling picture of an emerging class of biointelligent systems: responsive, adaptive, and alive in more ways than one. At the heart of this issue are several breakthroughs in skeletal muscle-based bioactuators, which embody the promise of integrating contractile tissue with synthetic frameworks for soft, life-like motion. Bartolucci A. et al. (10.1002/aisy.202400989) presented a monolithic biohybrid flexure mechanism, consisting of a tubular biohybrid flexure mechanism powered by bioengineered skeletal muscle tissue which demonstrated the potential for compact, muscle-powered robotic systems with integrated actuation and compliance. In this study, the soft silicone structure converts muscle contractions into bending motion, aided by integrated cylindrical pillars for effective force transmission. As proved by performance tests and simulations, such a design offers enhanced contractility and scalability, especially with reduced diameters, providing a simple, robust solution for advancing next-generation, miniaturized biohybrid robots. Lai S. et al. (10.1002/aisy.202400407) introduced a soft bioactuator combining 3D-bioengineered skeletal muscle with organic transistor-based sensors for real-time force monitoring. The system converts muscle contractions into electrical signals, enabling precise performance tracking. Unlike traditional sensors, the transistor-based design offers tunable sensitivity via gate voltage modulation. Moreover, to advance proprioceptive sensing and enable dynamic feedback control, we introduced a soft, fiber-shaped piezoresistive sensor that integrates with engineered skeletal muscle tissue and allows for real-time sensing of low-strain contractions under electrical stimulation (10.1002/aisy.202400413). By feeding this sensory data into a control system, we demonstrated the first proprioceptive biohybrid robot capable of autonomous response to its contraction state. This advancement marks a significant step toward intelligent biohybrid systems with decision-making capabilities, opening new possibilities for biomedical models, implantable devices, and next-generation soft robotics. To truly advance biological robotics, it is essential to move beyond actuation alone and explore functions such as homeostatic regulation and adaptive environmental sensing, roles that, in our bodies, are seamlessly orchestrated through systems like the skin. Extending the paradigm of functional integration, another group presented a skin-covered biohybrid robotic finger with a bilayered, permeable support that maintains tissue hydration, highlighting the importance of physiological environments for sustaining biological function within engineered systems (10.1002/aisy.202400871). Preserving cultured skin tissue hydration in air-exposed conditions is made possible via a perforated 3D-printed skeletal layer for mechanical strength and a sponge-like PVA hydrogel for moisture retention and nutrient diffusion. The approach significantly enhances the durability and real-world applicability of skin-covered biohybrid robots. The special issue also explores the world of invertebrate biohybrids. The review from Fraga C. J. et al. highlights the progress in biohybrid invertebrate robotics, where organisms like insects, jellyfish, and sea slugs are integrated into robotic systems to enhance locomotion and sensing (10.1002/aisy.202401105). These robots offer advantages in energy efficiency, adaptability, and low-cost deployment for tasks such as environmental monitoring and search-and-rescue. However, challenges remain in control, power delivery, and reliability due to biological limitations. The authors outline current solutions and future directions to improve controllability, sustainability, and operational lifespan in biohybrid systems. A standout example is the creation of cyborg insects with autonomous navigation, using the insect's own visual system to control movement. Refat C. M. M. et al. introduce a noninvasive control method for cyborg insects using their natural aversion to UV light (10.1002/aisy.202400838). A wearable UV helmet stimulates the compound eyes to trigger directional turning, achieving reliable guidance without habituation. This approach reduces stimulation frequency and leverages natural behavior, offering a promising alternative to traditional electrical methods. These “bio-intelligent” agents point toward a future where natural sensory systems are not replicated but directly harnessed. Moreover, a study of robot-insect-pathogen interaction reveals how robotic surrogates can be integrated into animal swarms to explore social immunity, offering a model system that bridges biology, behavior, and disease ecology (10.1002/aisy.202400763). On the microscopic scale, bio-inspired and bio-hybrid robotics takes a different form. The motile behaviors of single-celled organisms (like bacteria) are particularly rich of sources of bio-inspiration for miniaturized controllable systems. A contribution on biomimetic, self-assembling microrobots demonstrates collective motion inspired by biological systems, suggesting a path forward for distributed intelligence and programmable matter (10.1002/aisy.202400839). This study showcases shape-dependent chemotaxis in doublet microswimmers composed of catalytic silver and passive silica spheres. These swimmers autonomously navigate hydrogen peroxide gradients by converting chemical energy into directed motion, with particle morphology playing a key role in guiding their behavior. The study demonstrates positive chemotaxis without complex fabrication, offering a streamlined approach to intelligent microswimmer design. Moreover, while bacteria have largely been conceived and engineered as individual biohybrid robotic systems, they also hold potential for constructing larger scale biohybrid assemblies. Krauss T. et al developed mm-scale magnetic soft robots that encapsulates probiotic bacteria for targeted cancer therapy (10.1002/aisy.202500257). By confining the bacteria in a hydrogel matrix, the system allows for precise, magnetically guided delivery while maintaining bacterial viability and therapeutic function. Demonstrating effective tumor spheroid disruption and mobility in complex environments, this platform offers a promising new approach for safe and concentrated bacterial cancer treatments and provides a glimpse into the therapeutic applications of bio-hybrids, capable of navigating to tumors and enhancing drug delivery through targeted microbial transport. Beyond the technical advances, a thought-provoking perspective article from Michael Levin in this issue reminds us that bio-hybrid systems may be not only functional but philosophical, thus offering new modes of understanding intelligence itself, distributed across substrates and species (10.1002/aisy.202401034). This work argues that current debates on AI overlook critical insights from diverse intelligence, synthetic morphology, and developmental biology. It emphasizes that understanding AI requires rethinking what counts as a “being,” as future intelligent agents may emerge in unfamiliar forms. Thus, the author calls for a broader, biologically grounded perspective to navigate the ethical and existential challenges posed by evolving intelligences. Together, the articles in this special issue underscore a profound shift in robotics, from bioinspired mimicry to true biointegration, from command-and-control paradigms to dynamic collaboration with living systems. As we begin to design robots that pulse with muscle tissue, perceive through cellular sensors, and grow or adapt like living organisms, we are invited to rethink the very foundations of what it means to engineer intelligence. No longer confined to circuits and code, intelligence is emerging in hybrid forms, entwined with biology, shaped by evolution, and responsive to the fluid, often unpredictable rhythms of life. In this new frontier, robotics is not just about building machines: it's about cultivating partnerships with life itself. The age of biohybrids signals not only a technological breakthrough, but a philosophical one: robots are beginning to come alive, and we must be ready to meet them on new terms. We hope this special issue offers inspiration and insight to readers from across disciplines who are captivated by the merging of biology and robotics. As researchers from synthetic biology, engineering, computer science, and philosophy converge, the field of biohybrid systems is poised for transformative growth, ushering in new forms of intelligent machines that pulse, adapt, and evolve alongside us. We extend our sincere thanks to all contributing authors for their groundbreaking work, and to the editorial team of Advanced Intelligent Systems for their invaluable support in bringing this vision to life. Miriam Filippi is an Established Researcher in Bio-hybrid Robotics at the Soft Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich, where she develops intelligent biological machines, bio-interfaces, and advanced biofabrication. She earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical and Biomolecular Sciences in 2016 at the University of Turin, developing magnetic systems for drug delivery, imaging, and stem cell tracking. At the Tissue Engineering Lab, University Hospital of Basel, she studied magnetic nanotechnologies for theranostics and tissue regeneration, focusing on stem cell actuation. At ETH, she develops next generation biohybrid systems with functionalities like adaptivity, autonomous regulation, intratissular fluidics, and musculoskeletal anatomies. She coordinated the AVETH Diversity Team, advocating inclusivity, equality, and female representation in academia. Recipient of the 2024 Wittenstein Intelligence Award and 2025 Micromachine Young Investigator Award, Miriam advances biointelligence at the nexus of biology, functional materials, predictive methods, and manufacturing technologies. Robert K. Katzschmann is an Assistant Professor of Robotics at ETH Zurich. He earned his Diplom-Ingenieur in 2013 from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After working on robotic manipulation technologies at Amazon Robotics and Dexai Robotics, Robert founded in July 2020 ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab. His lab focuses on creating musculoskeletal robots made of soft and living materials to achieve new locomotion and object manipulation capabilities that can safely interact in human-centric environments. His research advances modeling, control, and machine learning techniques to create optimized and autonomous soft and musculoskeletal robots.