This is Gordon, the robot operated exclusively by living rat brain neurons
It is somewhat very unlikely to see a robot operate autonomously without any artificial intelligent systems integrated in its circuitry. However, in the edge of our imagination, two researchers, Kevin Warwick and Ben Whalley from the University of Reading in UK, actually made a wheeled robot move using a rat's brain, nothing artificial.
About 300,000 neurons from a rat fetus' brain were extracted and cultured in a nutrient broth. Similarly, the neurons produced electrical impulses, and these electrical activity were then connected to an output device of the robot's sensor. During the actual experiment, it was proven that the neurons really made the robot move around an enclosed area. (see video)
The main purpose of this research is to understand how the brain functions given a specific stimulus and how the behavior of robots can differ using either a rat or a human brain . "By observing how the cultured neurons respond to stimulation could improve our understanding of neurological conditions such as epilepsy", Warwick said.
Upon completion of this experiment, the researchers will make a model out of human brain neurons to get a better understanding on the human brain-related diseases like alzheimer's.
Quite cool although we are still far far from a computer that can think!
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Artificial intelligence the word belong to technology.And the picture Gordan shows nice to know about it very much.