Imagine robots not just built from metal and circuits, but powered and directed by living organisms. Engineers have taken a significant step in this direction by creating a novel type of biohybrid robot that uses living fungi as its control system. This innovative machine, developed by researchers at Cornell University and the University of Florence, leverages the electrical signals of the king trumpet mushroom, an edible species, to navigate and interact with its surroundings. This breakthrough could mark the beginning of a revolutionary era in living robotics, where biological and artificial systems merge to create machines with unprecedented capabilities.
Alt text: Biohybrid robot prototype featuring a king trumpet mushroom integrated within a robotic chassis, developed collaboratively by Cornell and Florence Universities.
Anand Mishra, a researcher at Cornell’s Organic Robotics Lab, highlights the unique advantages of using living systems in robotics. “Living systems respond to touch, light, heat, and even unforeseen signals,” Mishra explains. “This responsiveness is key to building future robots that can operate effectively in unpredictable environments. By harnessing living systems, we can create robots capable of adapting to unknown inputs and responding dynamically.” This inherent adaptability of biological components offers a significant advantage over traditional robots limited by pre-programmed responses.
The mushroom-controlled robot showcases this adaptability through its reactions to different stimuli. Exposure to ultraviolet light, for instance, results in varied movements. Demonstrations reveal the robot slowly traversing surfaces using pump-driven robotic legs. Another iteration employs a wheeled system for locomotion, indicating the versatility of the fungal control mechanism. This movement, driven by the fungus, can be interpreted metaphorically as the “Mushroom Learns To Crawl,” highlighting the novel integration of biological direction into robotic motion.
The fusion of mobility with the fungi’s sensory abilities opens up a wide array of potential applications. Professor Rob Shepherd from Cornell emphasizes the environmental sensing capabilities: “By embedding mycelium within the robot’s electronics, we empower the biohybrid machine to sense and react to its environment.” This capability could be transformative in fields like agriculture. Imagine robots autonomously monitoring soil chemistry in crop fields, determining precisely when and where fertilizer is needed. This precision agriculture approach could mitigate harmful environmental impacts like algal blooms caused by fertilizer runoff.
Alt text: Researchers demonstrating the biohybrid robot’s movement capabilities, showcasing its potential for navigation and environmental interaction.
The details of this groundbreaking biohybrid robot are documented in a study published in Science Robotics, titled ‘Sensorimotor control of robots mediated by electro-physiological measurements of fungal mycelia’. While not the first instance of integrating living organisms into robots – previous experiments include a Lego robot controlled by an artificial worm brain and MIT’s muscle tissue-integrated machine – the use of mushrooms presents a significant advancement. Mushrooms, particularly mycelia networks, offer resilience and adaptability to harsh conditions, making them robust biological controllers for future biohybrid robots. This research paves the way for a future where robots are not just tools, but symbiotic partnerships between technology and the natural world, learning and adapting in ways we are only beginning to understand, much like a “mushroom learns to crawl.”
