Scientists build robots that communicate with humans, dance, draw

Mammal-like robots with whiskered touch systems,machines powered by slime and dancing humanoids that can communicate with humans are just a few of the robots invading the Science Museum on Thursday.

The International Living Machines conference showcases a wide array of strange machines that not only advance robotics but help scientists understand more about nature’s living organisms by trying to replicate their functions.

Led by the University of Sheffield, the event unites technologists from around the globe to explore the future of biomimetic and biohybrid technologies with a focus on future life-like robots.

Cutting edge machines in the spotlight include robots that move and sense like animals, biohybrid exhibits that mix biological and artificial parts, including an emotionally-expressive robot controlled by slime mould and the latest biomimetic medical devices that draw their inspiration from the natural world.

The conference is concerned with the development of future technologies using the principles underlying living systems and the flow of communication signals between living and artificial systems.

Professor Tony Prescott from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Psychology said: “These technologies will have a profound effect on many

different aspects of our future lives, posing important ethical questions and practical concerns that this event gives us chance to address.”
Similarly, a ‘Shrewbot’ based on the smallest terrestrial mammal uses whiskers to explore its surroundings.

The diminutive robot shrew can map its surroundings using touch alone and follow a smaller prey robot using its whisker sense.

Scientists at Bristol Robotics Laboratory have created an artificial human fingertip called Tacitip that mimics one of the most sophisticated and sensitive tactile sensors in nature.

Similarly, a ‘Shrewbot’ based on the smallest terrestrial mammal uses whiskers to explore its surroundings.

The diminutive robot shrew can map its surroundings using touch alone and follow a smaller prey robot using its whisker sense.

Scientists at Bristol Robotics Laboratory have created an artificial human fingertip called Tacitip that mimics one of the most sophisticated and sensitive tactile sensors in nature.

Scientists believe the possibility of creating biohybrid machines that combine biological and artificial parts will radically change our technology and blur the boundary between the natural and the artificial.

In the future we may also find ourselves becoming more “biohybrid,” as we become more intimately linked to the machines that serve us.

One example of a biohybrid machine on display at the exhibition uses “slime mould” the largest single cell visible to the human eye that lives in woods digesting dead leaf and tree material but is also capable of simple learning and memory.

The mould is used in an installation that includes a robotic head emoting the responses of the slime mould to external stimuli, and a demonstration of the learning abilities of the mould in robot tasks.

The exhibition also includes a “living wearable” made from colour-changing cells, inspired by the skin of a chameleon that changes colour to indicate the intensity of the wearer’s emotions.

There are also biomimec machines that draw inspiration from nature, including robots that behave like octopuses, worms and fish.