Scientists to create a robot from mould
August 31, 2009
A scientist at the University of the West of England claims that he is on track for developing the world’s first biological robot from a mould that naturally occurs in damp places throughout the U.K.
Professor Andy Adamatzky who is in charge of the project says that his team has already shown that mould has the ability to perform complex computational tasks.
Plasmobot will be made up entirely of plasmodium which comes from a commonly occurring slime mould called Physarum polycephalum.
Professor Adamatzky says that one has to do away with conventional perceptions of what a computer is and realise that plasmodium, with its own embedded intelligence, is already capable of computing complex tasks such as growing in certain directions and carrying small objects. He said that the plasmobot will be controlled using electromagnetic fields and lights, will have sensors, inputs and outputs and will have the mathematical capabilities of a super computer.
Professor Adamatzky went on to say that although it was early days he predicted that in the future his plasmobot could be used to assemble machines made up of micro components. He said that the robots could be used in medicine to deliver tiny doses of a drug to a specific part of the body. One day he thinks that plasmodia computers could live on the human body performing a whole range of menial tasks so that our brains would be able to concentrate on other things.
He did however admit that it was all “purely theoretical at the moment.”
Thanks to www.physorg.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
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