Computer-designed frogs: scientists create the first living robots
After simulating the perfect prototype on a supercomputer, scientists sculpted frog cells to turn them into "living machines".
Half robots, half living organisms. Scientists at the Universities of Vermont (UMV) and Tufts, in the United States, have successfully created, by combining a computer program and frog cells, "xenobots". Measuring a few millimeters wide, these living and programmable organisms are, for the moment, capable of performing only basic actions such as moving around, pushing small objects and regenerating after being injured. But they could, one day, be used as medical tools, detect radioactive contamination or even ... Clean up the oceans, announced the researchers in their study published this Monday, January 13 in the journal PNAS.
"These are new living machines," said Josh Bongard, computer scientist expert in robotics at UVM and co-author of the study, in a press release. "They are not traditional robots or an animal species. known, but from a new category of artefact: a living and programmable organism ". These creatures were first engineered in a UVM supercomputer and then put together by biologists at Tufts who used stem cells from frogs. "We can imagine many applications for these living robots: detecting dangerous or radioactive materials, recovering microplastics present in the oceans or even traveling inside the human body in order to clean the arteries", explains Michael Levin, director of the Center. of Tufts Biology and also co-author of the study.
https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/sciences/grenouilles-androides-des-scientifiques-creent-les-premiers-robots-vivants_2114063.html
Another article on futura:https://www.futura-sciences.com/tech/actualites/robotique-premier-robot-vivant-fabrique-partir-cellules-79186/