AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.3590
REVIEW
Early Access

Bioprinting for wearable sensors, brain-machine interfaces and exoskeleton robots

Xinrui Wang1,2 Wei Dong1 Hui Dong1* Yongzhuo Gao1* Jiawen Lin3 Haichao Jia3 Yihui Tao4 Hao Sun3*
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1 School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China
2 Weapon Equipment Research Institute South Industries Group Corp., Beijing, 102202, China
3 College of Mechanical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350001, China
4 College of Big Data and Internet, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen, 518118
Submitted: 6 May 2024 | Accepted: 24 July 2024 | Published: 31 July 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomimetic and bioinspired printed structures)
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Bioprinting holds the promise of producing biocompatible structures capable of seamlessly integrating with human physiology. It has improved human health by enabling the precise fabrication of tissue models that closely mimic the architecture and functions of human skin, brain and bone. Building on the significant contributions of bioprinting in these realms, there has been corresponding increase of cross-disciplinary innovations in wearable technologies, brain-machine interfaces and exoskeleton robotics. Given the progress of bioprinting in skin study, the biocompatibility and integration with the human body of wearable electronics are expected to be improved. For the patient-specific neural tissues created by bioprinting, the potential to replicate neural activities through the synergy of bioprinting and brain-machine interfaces presents opportunities to boost the performance of more advanced neuromorphic systems. Inspired by the advancements of bioprinting in producing patient-specific bone grafts and scaffolds, bioprinting may also supply necessary tools to narrow the gaps between purely mechanical systems and biomechanics, and redefine the limits of skeleton robotics. This work revisits the rapidly advancing frontier applications of bioprinting in fields of wearable sensors, brain-machine interfaces and exoskeleton robots. Brief discussions are also provided on existing and potential issues encountered by the interdisciplinary research.

Keywords
Bioprinting
Wearable sensor
Brain-machine interface
Exoskeleton robot
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers: 62173093, 61604042].
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing