Succeeded to make 'artificial creature' that is neither robot nor living thing

In response to light move the fins like rays, not a complete robot or living thing "Artificial creatureHarvard UniversityWyss InstituteProfessor Kevin Kit Parker developed it. It is possible that this artificial creature could be used to create artificial organs such as artificial heart in the future.

Robotic stingray powered by light-activated muscle cells | Science | AAAS
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/robotic-stingray-powered-light-activated-muscle-cells

You can see how artificial creatures move from the following movies.

Robotic ray is part animal, part machine - YouTube


This is an artificial creature. 100% Robot is not 100% organism, it is an object that fuses them together. The shape seems to be rays, spreading fins or ...


Repeat the movement such as bending.


As you can see, it is made to resemble the life of an organism.


The skeleton is made of gold, the portion which corresponds to the body such as fins are resilient like rubberElastomerIt is made. This gold skeleton isElastic energyYou can save it.


Because the body is made of 200,000 cardiomyocytes responding to light ......


Artificial creatures move fins when they hit the light.


By arranging the cells in a zigzag as follows, the order of operation is transmitted from one to the next, and the movement like when the fly moves the fly can be reproduced.


Also, the movement of the fins can be adjusted by the light pattern.


One reason why artificial creatures were created is to know the structure of the heart cells and how to control them so that they can be used to make an artificial heart in the future.


And another reason is to develop the field of integrated cognition in artificial animals by inputting with sensors and developing artificial creatures that react to the outside world and perform complex movements.


An artificial creature actually made is like this.


Where a child of Dr. Parker touched an artificial creature and a real ray to compare it. Dr. Parker saw his daughter putting her child on the palm of her hand at the aquarium and he got the idea of ​​an artificial creature as he noticed that the movement resembled the movement of the pump of the heart is.


Whether this attempt will lead to the development of the robot field or to the field of artificial organ creation is unknown at the time of article creation. Parker's aim is originally to make artificial organs, but the method of using cardiac cells like this time is biologically unnatural, "to use this research for future research related to the heart There is also a view that it is difficult. On the other hand, because the research reproduces many of the functions of the heart, we are also evaluating that it is "very beneficial" from researchers.