Now they can also reproduce, the first living robots called Xenobot, because they are made with cells of the Xenopus frog aggregated in spheres of a few millimeters programmed by artificial intelligence: similar to Pac-Man, they are able to move in space and self-replicate by assembling the cells that meet along the way to form new organisms.
The result is published in the journal of the American Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by a US group that includes Tuft University, Harvard and the University of Vermont.
To make these artificial multicellular organisms (i.e. programmed to perform functions other than natural ones), the researchers took cells from the skin of Xenopus laevis frog larvae and incubated them until they became small multicellular organisms covered with cilia and capable of moving.
Computer simulation predicts the activity of multicellular organisms designed by artificial intelligence (source: S. Kriegman and D. Blackinston)
Subsequently, these organisms were placed on a plate together with other single Xenopus cells scattered here and there.
Thanks to their cilia, the little Pac-Man began to move by compacting the cells they encountered along the way: once adhered to each other, these cells gave life to other organisms with movement in just five days.
Using artificial intelligence, the researchers designed other self-replicating arrays of Pac-Man in different configurations: according to computer simulations, their self-organization could be exploited to perform useful tasks, such as joining wires or closing circuits.
