- Now this is the kind of science we need more of.
It’s happened plenty of times in science fiction novels and movies. Scientists put something in a robot body — whether an AI or some seemingly innocuous creature — and it promptly uses its newfound power to annihilate humanity.
Well, now they’ve gone and done it for real.
A U.S.-Italian research team has placed a fungus into a robotic body. Actually, scratch that — they allowed the fungus to grow and take over the robot, essentially creating a fungal cyborg.
You won’t have to worry about kneeling before Earth’s new fungal overlords anytime soon, however. The robotic mushroom isn’t exactly the most agile thing in the world.
It just kind of… Flops about like a fish on dry land.
It’s pretty darn adorable, though.
Scientifically Delicious
The multidisciplinary research team behind the fungus cyborg consists of scientists from the Cornell University in the U.S. and the University of Florence in Italy. The results of their experiments were recently published in the journal Science Robotics.
For their experiments, the researchers chose to use the fungus Pleyrotus eryngii. You might be more familiar with its common names king oyster mushroom or king trumpet mushroom.
Yep — it’s the same ‘shroom you might fry up for your dinner.
Its deliciousness had no bearing on the robot experiment, though. Instead, it received the honor of becoming a cyborg due to the qualities of its mycelia, or “roots.”
Fungal mycelia, in general, are actually very useful for cybernetic research. They’re easy and cheap to grow, can survive in adverse conditions, and their strands function very similarly to our nervous systems.
The king oyster mushroom’s mycelia, in particular, are surprisingly similar to nerves. So, the scientists allowed the fungus to take over two robots.
“By growing mycelium into the electronics of a robot, we were able to allow the biohybrid machine to sense and respond to the environment,” explained the research paper’s senior author, Rob Shepherd from Cornell University.
One of the robots was a basic car-like four-wheeled device. The other one was a soft five-legged robot, looking a bit like a mechanical octopus.
By allowing the fungus to grow into the circuits of the bots, the researchers hoped that they could control the devices through the fungus’ natural electrical impulses.
Fungal Behavior
So, what did the fungal robots do in the end?
The researchers ran three experiments with the robots. They started by allowing them to react to the fungus’ natural signals, then they stimulated the fungus with ultraviolet light, and finally tried to completely take over the robots’ control.
Both robots reacted more or less in the same manner. However, the octopus bot is infinitely more entertaining to watch.
When allowed to function on its own, it doesn’t really do much. The fungus makes the robot lazily stand up and flop back down every now and then — but at least it’s in control.
Shining light on the robot, however, makes the fungus go apes***, at least relatively speaking. It starts actively twitching, propelling the octobot forward at a significantly faster speed.
The final experiment proved that there was never any need to worry about the fungus going rogue in its robot body. It was simply no match to a proper computer and the researchers could take over the robot without the fungus interfering.
Adorable and Useful
But was there any point to this experiment, apart from making a cute, floppy fungal octopus robot? Surprisingly, yes.
The robots are pathetically clumsy, but the whole experiment was never about making an actual practical fungus bot. Instead, it aimed to show whether something like a mushroom could connect and communicate through a mechanical system.
“This kind of project is not just about controlling a robot. It is also about creating a true connection with the living system,” said the team leader Anand Mishra.
Essentially, the value of the research comes from the fungus visualizing whatever it’s experiencing through the robot. For instance, we now know that it reacts to light in a way that makes the octobot go nuts.
This could open new doors in areas like agriculture. Imagine, for example, a field of corn where the plants themselves could tell the farmer, “Hey, we need some more fertilizer over here.”
In the end, though, even if the only thing to come out of this experiment was the octobot, we’d say it was worth it. Look at it go!