Florida scientists have grown a brain in a petri dish and taught it to fly a fighter plane.

Seriously
By Robin Lettice

Scientists at the university of Florida taught the 'brain', which was grown from 25,000 neural cells extracted from a rat embryo, to pilot an F-22 jet simulator. It was taught to control the flight path, even in mock hurricane-strength winds. The brain cells taught THEMSELVES!

"When we first hooked them up, the plane 'crashed' all the time," Dr Thomas DeMarse, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida, said. "But over time, the neural network slowly adapts as the brain learns to control the pitch and roll of the aircraft. After a while, it produces a nice straight and level trajectory."

The brain-in-a-dish was DeMarse' idea. To produce it, 25,000 rat neurones were suspended in a specialised liquid to keep them alive and then laid across a grid of 60 electrodes in a small glass dish.

The cells at first looked like grains of sand under the microscope, but soon began to connect to form what scientists call a "live computation device" (a brain). Electrodes monitor and stimulate neural activity in this network, allowing researchers to study how the brain processes and transfers information.

The scientists hope that their research will lead to hybrid computers with organic components, allowing more flexible and varied means of solving problems.

One potential application is to install living computers in unmanned aircraft for missions too dangerous for humans. It is also hoped that further advances will help in the search for cures for conditions such as epilepsy, The Age reports.

"The algorithms that living computers use are also extremely fault-tolerant," Dr DeMarse said. "A few neurons die off every day in humans without any noticeable drop in performance, and yet if the same were to happen in a traditional silicon-based computer the results would be catastrophic."

The US National Science Foundation has awarded the team a $500,000 grant to produce a mathematical model of how the neurons compute. ®

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The Future Of Robotics As We Know It!

This is my robot.

It's a quadruped (4 legged walker). I built it out of 5 hobby servos (one for the waist and one for each leg). Coat hanger wire and brass nuts and washers from the hardware store are what holds it all together.

It's designed around the BEAM robotics philosophy. BEAM stands for biology, electronics, aesthetics and mechanics.

BEAM robot circuitry is composed of mainly hard wired electronics that are used to get it to walk. No computer micro-processors are involved in the walking gaits, which leaves loads of room for actual computing power. This is the robotics design of the future. One day all robots will be designed around the BEAM philosophy. Beam robots are more agile, sturdy and flexible that conventional robots.

Have you ever seen the Robosapien? That's BEAM technology. It was invented by Mark Tilden.
Click Here to see the Robosapien.

This particular picture of it has no electronics attached. The electronics are sitting on a breadboard waiting to be tested and installed.

The basic walking circuit uses a kind of biofeedback sensing technology that's built into the motor drivers. Basically, if it gets it's leg stuck in a hole it's "spinal cord" will sense a "drag" on the system and work that leg a little harder to try and get unstuck.

This one will have the ability to walk forward using 3 different gaits and three different power levels, sense obstacles, back up, sense static electricity, sense water, sense the difference between light and dark, recharge itself when needed, using solar power, and run away from loud noises. While in standard mode it will seek out light and try to make sure it's batteries are topped off until something interrupts it such as a loud noise, puddle of water, high static charge etc.

I have designed a priority sensing network so it will know when to switch from a certain mode into another mode if needed. When all modes are off it will seek light. When it gets to a spot that has enough light it will stop and it will sit there and charge until the battery is topped off. Kind of like a gator sunning on a log. When the battery tops off it will enter "explore mode". It will wander around avoiding obstacles until something interrupts it. If it walks into a puddle it will back away and turn around then switch back to explore mode. If it hears a loud noise or gets a strong jolt (like by a cat trying to mess with it or something) it will turn around and run away.

I may have a hard time getting all the circuitry to fit on this little guy. If so I will have to switch to some bigger motors. I was thinking windshield wiper motors out of a car or something if they are efficient enough. Maybe.

I was thinking about posting the schematics here but that is way too time consuming for me to do right now. It's all scribbled on a piece of paper and most of it is already on a breadboard. So I know it works I just don't have a very good schematic of it right now.

I will post some schematics in the future.

If you would like to know more about BEAM technology and get some schematics to work with so you can start building your own BEAM robots you can start by visiting the sites listed below:

Solarbotics.com
- THE place to get BEAM Robotics Parts, Kits and accessories

Beam Online
- This is the Yahoo of BEAM resources. They have Robot Pictures, Info about Mark Tilden, Solar Engine Schematics, Microcores, ,Bi-Cores, Motor Drivers etc...

Sun BEAM
- Lots of info about Micro BEAM bots

The Microcore
- Lots of crucial info and white papers about the microcore by Andrew Miller. Hosted by Solarbotics.com. The microcore is the basic walking/pulsing circuit of the BEAM community. Learn how to build it, what to do with it, learn about leg mechanics and how to interface it all to create the ultimate BEAM walking robot. This is where I learned most everything I know about walkers.

BEAM FAQ
- The BEAM robotics FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions Page) If you have a question about BEAM then it will most likely be here.

Don't be scared to try this! It's easy!

Have FUN and good luck!

Technology Is Getting Smarter All The Time

I went to Walgreens a couple days ago and saw this cool game I had to have. It says "I Can Read Your Mind". The game is called 20Q (stands for 20 Questions).

When I got it out of the package I read the instructions and they say just think of something (any every day item) and it will ask you some questions and guess what you are thinking. So I thought "yea right, impossible".

So I started to play. I thought of something, a hammer I believe it was, and I commenced to answering it's questions. Well I'll be damned if it didn't guess it! I was AMAZED! So I thought maybe it was a fluke. There's no possible way this thing could ask me a few questions and guess what I was thinking every time. So I tried it again. Time after time this freaking thing guessed EXACTLY what I was thinking of! By this time I was starting to get upset! So I tried to trick it. Well come to find out it doesn't do so well when you lie to it, and it's not as much fun either.

I tried it on my friends and it freaked them all out.

Then I read the package and they have a website that's pretty interesting as well.

The web version is way more complex than the retail version but it's still alot of fun. The web version actually LEARNS as people interact with it via some sort of AI programming. I was utterly impressed with this thing.

It's made by Radica Games.

If you wanna check out the web version you can visit their website below but I strongly recommend going to walgreens and buying the actual retail game itself. It's alot of fun and it will absolutely amaze you and your friends.

Click this link to check out the web version: http://www.20q.com

Have fun.

Halloween Was Lot's Of Fun This Year

Halloween is so much fun sometimes!

This year we went to Shirley's brother Joe's and took the kids trick or treatin'. Shane steered clear of me the whole time because he was scared of my costume. Maybe it was the voice changer box :)



But Owen (the little one) wasn't scared at all. Shane had a cool little ninja costume. Man I wish I could be a kid again just for a day. :) Wait a minute! i kinda was! :)



Spiderman was there with his two little princesses too. They were the superhero's of the entire day. :)



Shirley and I cut a cool pumpkin with a stencil we got from wal-mart the night before.



And Shirley dressed as a kitty cat. That's her with her bag of candy. She's just a big kid at heart. :)



We also saw Sponge Bob The Pirate at one of the houses we visited. I've never seen Sponge Bob look so scary!



And Joe Went as Shaggy from Scooby Doo. Owen is the one with the choo choo train outfit. I told Joe that next year he should go as Shaggy again and I'll go as Scooby Doo. We'll make Joe's wife Velma and Shirley will be Daphne. And we're gonna make a scarecrow out of straw that looks like Fred and drag it around then tell everyone Fred got killed by a monster!



We had fun this year!