Robot controlled by moth brain

Scientists at the University of Arizona researchers built a robot that's guided by a moth's brain impules.

The moth is immobilize inside a plastic tube mounted atop the 6-inch-tall wheeled robot. To get the moth to imitate flight, [professor Charles M.] Higgins and his team placed the moth in its apparatus on a circular platform surrounded by a 14-inch-high revolving wall painted with vertical stripes. The moth's neuron reacts to the movement of the stripes and the process begins.

The brain of a moth is about the size of a grain of rice. Although small, “its compact size and simplicity allows for an efficient way to do brain research,” Higgins said.

Link (Via ComDig)

• [Scixual]

  Sounds like the beginnings of a particularly bad sci-fi horror flick from the 1950′s.

  Fascinating and Creepy.

• [jjasper]

  Where are the tiny singing girls?

• [Eduardo Padoan]

  I for one welcome our new moth-guided Mega-Mecha overloards.

• [fullerenedream]

  One step closer to my boyfriend’s vision of a fish in a fishtank with robot legs that the fish controls with its mind. Do you think a fish could learn to walk?

• [fullerenedream]

  (actually I think it was supposed to be a robot fishBOWL)

• [treq]

  I sense a good rivalry brewing:

  Robo-Moth vs. Robo-Cockroach

  When’s the next available slot for The Octagon?

• [A New Challenger]

  Aww man, at a quick glance I thought that said “Mother Brain.”

  Still awesome, but you can understand my initial disappointment/relief.

• [Lindsayjp]

  The creator of the robo-moth says his ultimate goal is creating computers with human and non-human components, i.e. moth-eye cameras. More here.

• [Michael R. Bernstein]

  ObNitPick: ‘impulses’.

• [mrfitz]

  “The underlying point in the creation of the robo-moth is the notion of advancing neuroscience.”

  Quote of the century.

• [stas59]

  This reminds me of the wonderful SF writer Cordwainer Smith. I recall that he had robots with mouse brains. The Instrumentality is coming!