Researchers at Australian biotechnology company Cortical Labs have steered a four-legged robot to a target on a map using human brain cells grown in a laboratory.
The team placed human nerve cells on a microchip with electrodes that transmit and register electrical impulses. This setup converted signals from the living cells into navigation instructions that guided the machine to its goal.
Brett Kagan, co-founder and chief executive of Cortical Labs, said the demonstration aims to show how biological computing can be applied to control physical equipment. He said the approach could in the longer term help develop autonomous systems capable of making decisions and adapting behaviour in unpredictable situations.
The technology remains experimental, with limits in speed and efficiency, and is not ready for complex tasks. Johnson Zhou, a research software engineer at Cortical Labs, said key challenges include establishing reliable communication with biological systems, developing training procedures, and ensuring consistent results. Cortical Labs previously demonstrated neuron clusters running computing tasks for the video games Pong and Doom.
