Communications of the ACM
Scientists at UVM, Tufts Create 'Living Robots'
Researchers at the University of Vermont and Tufts University followed a supercomputer's design to create tiny living robots from frog cells.
Credit: Joshua Bongard et al
Researchers at the University of Vermont (UVM) and Tufts University created tiny living robots made of frog cells using a supercomputer, an achievement with implications for regenerative medicine.
The biobots were designed on the Deep Green supercomputer cluster at UVM's Vermont Advanced Computing Core.
The supercomputer considered billions of designs in search of one that would quickly travel across the bottom of a petri dish, then the team used tiny forceps and a tinier electrode to assemble cells from the embryos of African frogs into a close approximation of the designs specified by the computer.
Said UVM's Joshua Bongard. "We used an evolutionary algorithm, a computer program which, in virtual words, evolves virtual creations."
From The Boston Globe
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