Robot Brains Made Out of Real Brains
If you’ve watched even just a little SciFi you’ve no doubt seen movies where organic brains are put inside robotic bodies (or the other way around). The resulting hybrd of organic and inorganic is often refered to as a “cyborg”. If you are a Star Trek fan, your favorite cyborgs are called simply “The Borg”.
Researchers at the University of Reading have created robots that have organic “brains” formed out of living networks of neurons that can control the robot. These robotic brains can also be swapped out – much like hard drives in a computer.
If you’ve watched even just a little SciFi you’ve no doubt seen movies where organic brains are put inside robotic bodies (or the other way around). The resulting hybrd of organic and inorganic is often refered to as a “cyborg”. If you are a Star Trek fan, your favorite cyborgs are called simply “The Borg”.
Researchers at the University of Reading have created robots that have organic “brains” formed out of living networks of neurons that can control the robot. These robotic brains can also be swapped out – much like hard drives in a computer.
The researcher’s aim is to understand how neural networks work as a way to understand (and cure) disease. But there are other potential uses for this research: imagine robots sent to extreme environments (oceans, space, etc.) that can learn to function in a way that is more like humans than current robots are capable of doing.
