Rat brain controlled robot created

A biological robot controlled by a blob of rat brain has been created by British scientists.

The wheeled machine is wirelessly linked to a bundle of neurons kept at body temperature in a sterile cabinet. Signals from the "brain" allow the robot to steer left or right to avoid objects in its path.

Researchers at the University of Reading are now trying to "teach" the robot to become familiar with its surroundings. They hope the experiment will show how memories manifest themselves in nerve connections as the robot revisits territory it has been to before.

Scientists in other parts of the world are also developing robots with living brains made from cultured cells. At the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US researchers have built a similar mobile machine.

New Scientist magazine reported that the US team was training their robot as if it was an animal learning tricks.

The British research is led by Professor Kevin Warwick, who has pioneered the merging of biology and robotics by conducting bizarre "cyborg" experiments on himself. One involved embedding a microchip into the nerves of his left arm that allowed him to control an electric wheelchair and artificial hand.

The Reading robot's brain consists of a small pot containing some 300,000 rat neurons.

After first being disconnected, the nerves were then encouraged to make new connections with each other in a continuing process. The complex way neurons connect and "talk" to each other is fundamental to how an organic brain works. Electrodes attached to the neural network allow sensory and command signals in and out of the brain.

The robot has just one means of sensing its surroundings, an ultrasound probe that bounces sound waves off objects. If the sensor detects a wall in its path, a signal is sent to the brain through a Bluetooth radio link. The brain then replies with another message telling the robot to steer away from the obstacle.

The team is now moving away from this simple system and getting the robot to learn how to navigate. Eventually the robot will be able to recognise familiar surroundings it has memorised.

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