reference: Robot with biological brain AKA Rat brain robot, Kevin Warvick, The University of Reading, 2008

article: A robot controlled by neurons of rat (http://honda-p3.com/robot_worldwide/a-robot-controlled-by-neurons-of-rat.html)

Rat brain robot

A robot has been created which is powered by a rat’s “brain”. Electrical signals from rat cells have been harnessed to drive the robot, which is on wheels, around a laboratory. By stimulating certain responses within the cells scientists have even been able to make the robot, or “animat”, move. The “brain” is actually rat brain tissue which has been artificially grown in a lab.
To create the machine scientists first grew rat nerve cells in a laboratory. These cells connect with each other, sending signals within around 24 hours. After a week the scientists can detect activity similar to brain activity. Within two or three weeks the cells can be hooked up to the robot. The team uses bluetooth technology, which allows them to send communication without the use of wires. Scientists can also use sonar signals to cause the robot to swerve to avoid a wall, by triggering different signals in the “brain” (links on robots and articles: http://www.robotpark.com/academy/robot-with-a-rat-brain-11009/)

Robot with biological brain

Kevin Warwick discusses his work on robots controlled by living brains

Warwick's claims that robots that can program themselves to avoid each other while operating in a group raise the issue of self-organisation.
In 1999 Warwick performed the first robot learning experiment by Internet. One robot, with an artificial neural network brain in Reading, UK, learnt how to move around. It then taught, via the Internet, another robot in SUNY Buffalo New York State, USA, to behave the same way. The robot in the US was therefore not taught or programmed by a human, but rather by another robot based on what it itself had learnt.


Kevin Warwick (1954, Coventry) is a British engineer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Coventry University in the United Kingdom. He is known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, and has also done research concerning robotics. (more on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Warwick)

Kevin Warvick is also known through his project Human cyborg

Kevin Warvick site: http://www.kevinwarwick.com/