Brainy robot

Robot fitted with a biological brain.

University of Reading engineers have developed a biological brain from cultured neurons which will be inserted into a robot.
 
It is hoped that this cutting-edge research will help us to better understand how memories manifest in the brain and how humans store specific data there. This research could also lead towards learning more about diseases and disorders which affect the brain such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, stoke and brain injury.
 
The robot’s brain is comprised of cultured neurons placed onto a multi-electrode array (MEA) – a dish with about 60 electrodes to pick up electrical signals generated by the cells. This is then used to drive the robot’s movement.
 
Every time the robot nears an object, signals are directed to stimulate the brain by means of the electrodes. In response, the brain's output is used to drive the wheels of the robot, left and right, so that it moves around in an attempt to avoid hitting objects. The robot has no additional control from a human or a computer, its sole means of control is from its own brain.
 
Professor Kevin Warwick from the School of Systems Engineering said: "This new research is tremendously exciting as firstly the biological brain controls its own moving robot body, and secondly it will enable us to investigate how the brain learns and memorises its experiences. This research will move our understanding forward of how brains work, and could have a profound effect on many areas of science and medicine."
 
Dr Ben Whalley from the School of Pharmacy, said: "One of the fundamental questions that scientists are facing today is how we link the activity of individual neurons with the complex behaviours that we see in whole organisms. This project gives us a really unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons. Hopefully we can use that to go some of the way to answer some of these very fundamental questions. "

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