These machines are being controlled by biological
cells!!
Robots being controlled by rat brains. Kevin Warwick, once a cyborg and still a researcher in cybernetics at the University of Reading, has been working on creating neural networks that can control machines. He and his team have taken the brain cells from rats, cultured them, and used them as the guidance control circuit for simple wheeled robots. Electrical impulses from the bot enter the batch of neurons, and responses from the cells are turned into commands for the device. The cells can form new connections, making the system a true learning machine. Warwick hasn’t released any new videos of the rat brain robot for the past few years, but the three older clips we have for you below are still awesome. He and his competitors continue to move this technology forward – animal cyborgs are real.So we can think of our future
Bus and other transportations thinking of its own and drives the vehicle through signals.So without programming they can think of their own and make decisions like us.It is only one example think of your own what would happen in our future.
Well it is actually alot more complicated than it sounds and I will
try to describe it as best as can. To get these cells, scientists
extract the neural cortex from a rat fetus and then seperate all the
connecting neurons from each other. They then put all the neurons back
together again in a rich nutrient environment containing electrodes. The
neurons then reconnect with each other and, after a period of extended
time, start communicating with each other using electrical signals. They
store the cells in temperature controlled environment (room
temperature) and connect to the robot (or “animat”) using bluetooth
radio technology.
Here is where things get complicated. The animat has ultra sound sensors on all sides. When the sensors detect something such as a wall, they send a signal to the electrodes which in turn send signals to the neurons. The neurons react to the signal by sending out their own signal which then tells the robot to got left or right.
If your brain isn’t already hurting like mine is, you maybe thinking ” Well thats interesting, but how will this affect human lives with the exception of the machine uprising?” Well scientists believe that doing experiments like these, they may be able to learn alot more about the brain then we do now. And with this knowledge they may be able to find out new treatments or even cures for mental disorders such as Alzheimers or Parkinson’s disease.
The skills of these rat-robot hybrids are very basic at this point. Mainly the neuron control helps the robot to avoid walls. Yet that obstacle avoidance often shows clear improvement over time, demonstrating how networks of neurons can grant simple learning to the machines. Whenever I watch the robots in the videos below I have to do a quick reality check – these machines are being controlled by biological cells! It’s simply amazing.
Warwick was busy in the beginning of the year, publishing three papers in regards to biological control of robots. He gave a great overview of the field in both the Defence Science Journal and the Proceedings of the IME, and then he published a really interesting discussion on the implications of these systems in the journal of Ethics and Information Technology. As Warwick points out again and again, these cyborgs are going to become more advanced, probably sooner rather than later. Current cultures of neurons have about 100,000 cells, but only a small fraction are actually involved in controlling the robot circuits at any given time. Research teams continually find new ways to increase the size and response of these cultures, as well as how long they can survive. Eventually, we’ll have a cultured system that is roughly the size of the simplest of mammalian brains. At that point these systems will be able to accomplish much more, but how will we classify devices that contain living cells, especially if they become somewhat intelligent?
Artificial intelligence is usually pursued through computer science, but biotech systems like Warwick’s raise the possibility that cybernetics may be a quicker route to success. There are several other teams around the world working on similar systems (Steve Potter’s group at Georgia Tech is doing pretty well). Collectively these researchers are pushing the boundaries of what biologically controlled machines can perceive and learn.
[video credits: New Scientists, Diagonal View, MagicBullet TV]
[source: KevinWarwick.com, Warwick et al 2010 Proc. IMechE, Warwick et al 2010 Defence Science Journal, Warwick et al 2010 Ethics and Info. Tech.]
Robots being controlled by rat brains. Kevin Warwick, once a cyborg and still a researcher in cybernetics at the University of Reading, has been working on creating neural networks that can control machines. He and his team have taken the brain cells from rats, cultured them, and used them as the guidance control circuit for simple wheeled robots. Electrical impulses from the bot enter the batch of neurons, and responses from the cells are turned into commands for the device. The cells can form new connections, making the system a true learning machine. Warwick hasn’t released any new videos of the rat brain robot for the past few years, but the three older clips we have for you below are still awesome. He and his competitors continue to move this technology forward – animal cyborgs are real.So we can think of our future
Bus and other transportations thinking of its own and drives the vehicle through signals.So without programming they can think of their own and make decisions like us.It is only one example think of your own what would happen in our future.
Here is where things get complicated. The animat has ultra sound sensors on all sides. When the sensors detect something such as a wall, they send a signal to the electrodes which in turn send signals to the neurons. The neurons react to the signal by sending out their own signal which then tells the robot to got left or right.
If your brain isn’t already hurting like mine is, you maybe thinking ” Well thats interesting, but how will this affect human lives with the exception of the machine uprising?” Well scientists believe that doing experiments like these, they may be able to learn alot more about the brain then we do now. And with this knowledge they may be able to find out new treatments or even cures for mental disorders such as Alzheimers or Parkinson’s disease.
The skills of these rat-robot hybrids are very basic at this point. Mainly the neuron control helps the robot to avoid walls. Yet that obstacle avoidance often shows clear improvement over time, demonstrating how networks of neurons can grant simple learning to the machines. Whenever I watch the robots in the videos below I have to do a quick reality check – these machines are being controlled by biological cells! It’s simply amazing.
Warwick was busy in the beginning of the year, publishing three papers in regards to biological control of robots. He gave a great overview of the field in both the Defence Science Journal and the Proceedings of the IME, and then he published a really interesting discussion on the implications of these systems in the journal of Ethics and Information Technology. As Warwick points out again and again, these cyborgs are going to become more advanced, probably sooner rather than later. Current cultures of neurons have about 100,000 cells, but only a small fraction are actually involved in controlling the robot circuits at any given time. Research teams continually find new ways to increase the size and response of these cultures, as well as how long they can survive. Eventually, we’ll have a cultured system that is roughly the size of the simplest of mammalian brains. At that point these systems will be able to accomplish much more, but how will we classify devices that contain living cells, especially if they become somewhat intelligent?
Artificial intelligence is usually pursued through computer science, but biotech systems like Warwick’s raise the possibility that cybernetics may be a quicker route to success. There are several other teams around the world working on similar systems (Steve Potter’s group at Georgia Tech is doing pretty well). Collectively these researchers are pushing the boundaries of what biologically controlled machines can perceive and learn.
[video credits: New Scientists, Diagonal View, MagicBullet TV]
[source: KevinWarwick.com, Warwick et al 2010 Proc. IMechE, Warwick et al 2010 Defence Science Journal, Warwick et al 2010 Ethics and Info. Tech.]
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