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Robot Controlled By Rat Brain

Posted by samzenpus on from the we're-gonna-need-a-smarter-trap dept.

kkleiner writes "Kevin Warwick, once a cyborg and still a researcher in cybernetics at the University of Reading, has been working on creating biological 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."

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. True learning machine? by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If it uses living cells from a rat brain, then it's not really a machine.

  2. Sentient cells? by Twinbee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What doesn't seem too clear after listening to the videos is why the rat's cells wouldn't want to crash the robot it's controlling, into the wall. Did the scientists program that in (perhaps wall crashes give the cells some kind of negative electrical stimulation), or did the cells have a mind of its own on that front?

    The difference is subtle because it means we have either a 'mere' replacement for computer chips, or potentially much more - a sentient clump of cells which want the 'best' for the robot it's controlling.

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    1. Re:Sentient cells? by golden+age+villain · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was wondering the same and honestly it seems fishy to me. There is no such thing as a negative electrical stimulation for neurons. Granted there is inhibition by GABA and some other neuromodulators. So unless they drop something on the tissue to induce some sort of learning, I simply don't see why any coherent behavior would emerge since there is no "motivation" to behave in one way rather than the other. From the wall-avoidance behavior video, my guess is that the sensors continuously feed the network until they detect a surface and then stop. In that case, the behavior would be hard-coded in the sensors and not in the network.

  3. Re:Robot Controlled by Rat Brain by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Mainly the neuron control helps the robot to avoid walls.

    So there must be messaging back into the rat. So the robot is to some extent controlling the rat brain.

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    http://michaelsmith.id.au