Biological organisms have some useful features that
synthetic robots do not, such as the ability to heal, adapt to new conditions
and nurture. However, it is difficult to turn biological tissues into robots or
tools: experimental techniques, such as generating a gene to perform a specific
task, are difficult to control and scalable.
Now, a team of scientists from the University of Vermont and
Tufts in Massachusetts uses a supercomputer to create novel life forms with
specific tasks, from living organisms to frog cells.
New, AI-designed organic bots crawl around the petri dish
and cure themselves. Unsurprisingly, biobots clean up a small garbage can.
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| AI-designed 'Living Robot' Crawl, Heals Itself |
"This is a clear choice in our evolutionary
algorithm," says Josh Bongard, a robotist at the University of Vermont who
co-authored the research published this week in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
The idea of AI-designed biobots came from the DARPA
funding call for autonomous machines adapting and developing in the
environment. Bongard and biologist Michael Levine at Tufts University wanted to
take advantage of Mother Nature's work and build an already capable machine:
living cells.
Researchers spent several days at the University of Vermont
running an evolutionary algorithm on a supercomputer. Inspired by natural
selection, the algorithm used biological building blocks to create a random
population of new life-form candidates. The algorithm is then dominated by Internet design with a fitness function that scores on each candidate's ability to
perform a specific task - in this case, the ability to move.
The most promising designs became the basis for spreading a
set of new designs and re-selecting the best of them. After a 100-run rinse and
repeat, and bounce algorithm, billions of possible designs, the team had five
finalist-AI-built designs that went well in silico.
Bongard's team sent the final designs to Levin's Laboratory
in Tufts, where micro-surgeon Douglas Blackiston found that four of the five
designs were too difficult or impossible to manufacture. But the fifth design
seemed remarkable. Blackstone used small forceps and a small electrode under a
microscope to closely approximate computer design of heart and skin cells from
the African frog Xenopus laevis. When halved, the cells can fold back into
themselves - today's robots and computers clearly do nothing.
Once built, the heart cells shrink, and the millimeter-wide
biobots move around the petri dish. When the team placed small pellets in the
dish, the cells worked together to clean the pellets in an unexpected way.
Bongard is the future of using such biobots to clean
microplastics in the ocean, especially when biobots are 100 percent
biodegradable and in salt water. “This may lead to the unique attractiveness of
these organisms for environmental protection,” says Bongard.
At the moment, miniscule robots are among the best in
locomotives, but Bongard is focused on other things. The next step, they are
developing a "cage boat" - an empty cube for carrying and carrying a
payload. In that capacity, bots can be built from one's own cells and then used
to deliver drugs deep into the body without an immune response, the authors
suggest.
Without the nervous system to understand the digestive
system or the surrounding environment to digest food, organisms only live for
days. In the future, the accumulation of different types of cells may change:
"If we want them to last longer, we want them to be able to find and eat
food sources," Bonger said. "We should be able to include sensory
organs in these biobots." The collaborators are now building AI-designed
biobots with mammalian cells.
The team is well aware that some of their new creatures may
be left without understanding and they may slip into an unknown valley.
Additionally, as they create new lifestyles, tell the
digestive, nervous, and reproductive systems - this team works with
bioethicists and adheres to strict animal welfare laws.
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