Robot Powered by a Rat's Brain

Rat-brain robot aids memory study

The blob of nerves forming the brain of the robot was taken from the neural cortex in a rat foetus... As the cells are living tissue, they are kept separate from the robot in a temperature-controlled cabinet in a container pitted with electrodes. Signals are passed to and from the robot via Bluetooth short-range radio.

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A robot controlled by a blob of rat brain cells could provide insights into diseases such as Alzheimer's, University of Reading scientists say.

The project marries 300,000 rat neurons to a robot that navigates via sonar.

The neurons are now being taught to steer the robot around obstacles and avoid the walls of the small pen in which it is kept.

By studying what happens to the neurons as they learn, its creators hope to reveal how memories are laid down...

Hybrid Machines?

Full Article + Video

[edit on 18-2-2010 by Wisen Heimer]

Next up... robot powered by a human brain... give it time, you'll see.

lol, I told someone about this and they didn't even believe me.

reply to post by Wisen Heimer


Star and Flagged my friend. Good find!

This is fairly old news isn't it? I've had the NewScientist video on this in my YTube favorites since 2008.

This reminds me of a thread posted a couple of years ago. That one had these guys who would hot-wire bugs and created Remote Control beetles and other insects.

They used RC plane controllers

Originally posted by Wisen Heimer
lol, I told someone about this and they didn't even believe me.

I think I remember reading an interview with Michael Crichton one time wherein he quipped about how his early novel "The Terminal Man" was based on cutting edge research and technologies for the time... but the book didn't sell well. He said a common complaint was that the premise was just too far out... too sci-fi, to be believable. He said he was astonished, and settled on writing books dealing with science and technology which had been cutting edge a few years prior. THAT stuff was just starting to seep into public perception and awareness. By staying a few years behind the curve, he stayed two steps ahead of public interest and acceptance.

Next up... robot powered by a human brain... give it time, you'll see.

Already done. Honda showed off an Asimov build being guided by an operator with a BCI (Brain Computer Interface) last year. Before that, invasive BCI implants for quadraplegics were allowing them to power on and navigate household electronics, control their wheelchairs, and navigate clumsy little "helper robots" to do tasks for them. Proof of concept anyhow.

Scientific American reports that as of 2008 nine people have received brain-implanted prostheses — they are able to “spell words on a computer, pilot a wheelchair or flex a mechanical hand.” So far, research indicates that the thought-to-synthesizer neural prosthesis is faster at interpreting brainwaves than the use of electrodes implanted in the scalp. And a device that relies on interpreting muscle activity — like the one used by Dr. Hawking to control his new NeoSpeech VoiceText synthesizer — is clearly not an option for someone like Eric who is completely paralyzed Helping "Locked in Patients" Speak Out.

The article refers to BCI technology capable of recognize brainwave patterns that indicate you're thinking about a letter, which it then decodes, selects, and moves on to the next letter you're thinking about. In this way, sentences and dialog can be constructed. Think of it kind of like Steven Hawking's current speech synthesizer being able to work just by having him think about it, rather than have to twitch his cheek.

Simplistic objects and states of mind can also be picked up. A scanner can tell if you're thinking about a face, a place, your house, and if you're being honest or lying. Since it takes far more brainpower to construct, organize, and memorize a lie (no matter how easy it can look for some) than it does to simply recall previously memorized events - and recalling activates distinctly different regions of the brain than construction lies can be detected fairly easily. IIRC, there was some talk of BCI lie detecting evidence becoming common as admissible to evidence because of their accuracy & reliability.

Some non-invasive BCI technology such as the Emotiv is already available for the consumer market to enhance the human computer interface, as well as allowing you to control video game characters using just your mind.



And if this is possible... why not prosthesis? Well, we can.





Heh... and most of the videos I posted are 2009/2008ish as well. Just to illustrate a point that the rat-brain robot isn't a pinnacle of our achievements by any means. It's just one facet of research regarding the integration of brain tissue to interface and manage a robot's motor control & spacial orientation.

reply to post by Lasheic


Yeah, it is pretty old news, but I didn't see it on ATS so I thought why not. Enless it is already on ATS? Nice post by the way. I remeber hearing about a human brain controlled robot aswell. Where is the robot controlled human brain?