Scientists have discovered a new way of controlling robots by using mycelium – the fungal network attached to the roots of mushrooms.
Researchers at Cornell University and the University of Florence created a pair of new robots, one shaped like a starfish and the other on wheels, and then grew mycelium into the electronics.
The fungus then responded to different light conditions, triggering electrical impulses and making the robots move.
The fact fungal networks are alive and thrive in all sorts of conditions makes them ideal for controlling robots in unexpected environments.
“Living systems respond to touch, they respond to light, they respond to heat, they respond to even some unknowns, like signals,” said the study’s lead author Anand Mishra from Cornell’s Organic Robotics Lab.
“That’s why we think, OK, if you wanted to build future robots, how can they work in an unexpected environment? We can leverage these living systems, and any unknown input [that] comes in, the robot will respond to that.”
The robots walked and rolled in response to the natural spikes in the fungus’s signals.
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Then the researchers used ultraviolet light to stimulate them, which caused them to change the way the robots moved.
This demonstrated the fungus’s ability to react to their environment.
“In this case we used light as the input, but in the future it will be chemical,” said the study’s senior author Rob Shepherd.
“The potential for future robots could be to sense soil chemistry in row crops and decide when to add more fertiliser, for example, perhaps mitigating downstream effects of agriculture like harmful algal blooms.”