Plasmobot: the slime mould robot


	Plasmobot: the slime mould robot

dopesick

9-7-2009 6:25 PM

133 views

tags:

plasmobot, plasmodium slime, robot, slime, technology

dopesick says:

A little icky, but nice. Definitely ressembles the Zergs from Starcraft.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/916c683e-fb30-417e-a83d-0c2c19abe4cc/6A0A5DA8-6F8E-4B8B-84D5-7AF4DEFE62E4/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327245.100-plasmobot-the-slime-mould-robot.html" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327245.100-plasmobot-the-slime-mould-robot.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327245.100-plasmobot-the-slime-mould-robot.html"><P class="infuse">In recent years, single-celled organisms have been used to control six-legged robots, but Andrew Adamatzky at UWE wants to go one step further by making a complete "<A href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/robots" alt="robot" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http:%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Ftopic%2Frobots&gsid=robot&entitytypeid=kw&lid=http://www.newscientist.com/topic/robots&title=robot&intref=infusion&variantName=robot&zodid=96')" class="infusionLink">robot</A>" out of a plasmodium slime mould, <A target="nsarticle" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physarum_polycephalum"><I>Physarum polycephalum</I></A>, a commonly occurring mould that moves towards <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/food-drink" alt="food" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http:%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Ftopic%2Ffood-drink&gsid=food&entitytypeid=kw&lid=http://www.newscientist.com/topic/food-drink&title=food&intref=infusion&variantName=food&zodid=96')" class="infusionLink">food</A> sources such as bacteria and fungi, and shies away from light.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327245.100-plasmobot-the-slime-mould-robot.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.newscientist.com/img/6FDAAD96-B803-4961-9A86-BBE4D9229650" alt="Single-celled slime moulds could be programmed as robots (Image: Visuals Unlimited / Corbis)" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327245.100-plasmobot-the-slime-mould-robot.html">Single-celled slime moulds could be programmed as robots</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327245.100-plasmobot-the-slime-mould-robot.html"><P class="infuse">Affectionately dubbed Plasmobot, it will be "programmed" using light and electromagnetic stimuli to trigger chemical reactions similar to a complex piece of chemistry called the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, which Adamatzky previously used to build liquid logic gates for a <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18524921.000-introducing-the-glooper-computer.html">synthetic brain</A>. By understanding and manipulating these reactions, says Adamatzky, it should be possible to program Plasmobot to move in certain ways, to "pick up" objects by engulfing them and even assemble them.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327245.100-plasmobot-the-slime-mould-robot.html"> The long-term aim is to use such robots to help assemble the components of micromachines, he says.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/6A0A5DA8-6F8E-4B8B-84D5-7AF4DEFE62E4/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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