Gareth writes:
MIT Tech Review has an amazing piece today about a robot at Georgia Tech that
runs on rat brain. Researchers took cultured rat neurons and placed
them on a silicon chip outfitted with suspended electrodes. As the
neurons fire, they excite the electrodes, which in turn send signals to
the drive motors of a coffee-mug-sized robot.Right now, the steering
is a little…ah…erratic. Researchers hope that feedback might allow
for some learning, and therefore, make rat-bot into a better driver.
The bot is equipped with light sensors for proximity navigation.
Triggering of these sensors send electrical impulses back into the
neuronal soup. Feedback! They're now looking for any evidence that the
rat "brain" is learning anything after closing the loop.
The rat-bot is shown above. Photo courtesy of the Georgia Tech Laboratory for Neuroengineering.
