Beneath the peel of a unsubdivided worm with limpid skin , there are 302 neurons that have been mapped meticulously by researchers in what is known as a connectome . This tiny , one millimeter - foresightful worm has been studied in laboratories around the world , and now it ’s nervous system has been transplanted into the consistency of a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot . The louse they used isCaenorhabditis elegans(C. elegans ) .
Why ? consort toOpenWorm — an organization dedicated to creating the world ’s first practical organism in a estimator — to understand the human mind , we must first be able to comprehend a simple dirt ball . To do so , their scientists basically reverse - engineered the insect ’s neural networks using sensors and software package . The model makes use of UDP packets to fire neurons . For example , the sonar detector on the robot is wire to be like the insect ’s olfactory organ , which means if the robot derive within 20 centimeters of an object , centripetal neurons are activated with UDP packets .
obviously , the robot acts a lot likeC. elegans : stimulant of its nose made it stop moving , while touching a food sensor made it move forward . “ What we found is that rather than just random , crazy movements by the golem , it actually responded to its environment in the same fashion as the biologic worm,”said Timothy Busbice , one of the founders of the OpenWorm project , to Gizmodo .
C. elegans human body . KDS444 , modified by Nnemo / Wikimedia Commons
Busbice has posted a video of the accomplishment toYoutube . While the Lego Robot ca n’t squirm like a worm and the TV is not exactly thrilling to see , it is interesting to see what can be achieved in a automaton with no instruction manual programmed into it .
“ The central stage is that there was no programing or learning involved to create the behavior , ” saidLucy BlackforI Programmer . “The connectome of the louse was mapped and implemented as a software package system and the demeanor emerge . ”
The simulation is not consummate quite yet . According to the Smithsonian , the computer programme has some simplification on the threshold needed to trigger the so - call nerve cell firing . For more elaborated selective information on the robotic worm , read thearticle publish by Busbicefor Radar .
[ Hat Tip : Smithsonian Magazine ]
