Linux robot driven by slime mould

General Discussion
1

I don’t know if any of you have seen the way slime mould uses very simple conservation of energy algorithms to solve quite complex problems such as working out the shortest path through a maze … but now the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton have used slime mould to “drive” a Linux powered robot :slight_smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ik1v0OiEw#

The cell, slime mould, shows periodic oscillation which period is typically 100s per cycle. When this cell is placed in a dumbbell-shaped chamber, two circular parts (i.e. ball parts) show synchronised or anti-phase oscillations. An on-board computer (gumstix, a kind of tiny Linux box) and a custom impedance measurement board keep track of the oscillation patterns and then convert them into robot commands.

PDF here:
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/268266/1/GoughJ09IntCellRoboSys.pdf
site:
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/268266/

Other awesome videos of slime mould doing its amazing thing -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75k8sqh5tfQ#

To be continued …

2

Continued …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czk4xgdhdY4#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvBSkt6LhJE#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZUQQmcR5-g#

Damn cool stuff that slime mould eh ?

3

Seen this before, this slime mould stuff is awesome. Was watching a documentary about it a good 6/7 months ago and the things it can do is nothing short of AMAZING!

They even managed to make it REPLICATE the UK motorways and roads and cities.

Just unreal.

4

Ahh … but did it have its own car back then ?

Did it replicate the contraflows and holdups on the M6 ?

C:-) :wink: C:-)

5

No it didn’t. I bet “it” must feel right at home now.

Lol, you’d need to ask the transport department. :wink:

6

do you think it would have done the Olympic lane traffic mess any better ? because it has my vote