This Robot Arm Tastes Enviroment By Using Bacteria In Its Fingers

Researchers have recently embedded bacteria into the fingers of the robot arm to produce a biohybrid bot which can taste the environment. They believe that this kind of robot can open the door to the future where robots will be able to react to their surrounding world.

On June 26, a research group at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) published their study in a young journal called Science Robotics. In this study, they carried out research into Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in an effort to create a fluorescent protein as this kind of bacteria contacts with the chemical IPTG.

Next part, these researchers put the bacteria inside wells that were integrated into flexible grippers of a robot arm. In the end, they applied a porous membrane into the wells to ensure the bacteria would stay still while they let liquids touch the cells.

They tested the system by letting the robot arm sink into a water bath which contained IPTG.

If the system identified the chemical, the bacteria would be luminescent. As such, electronic circuits would be activated and transmit a signal to the control unit of the grippers. And the grippers wouldn’t drop any item down. However, if there was no chemical, the system inside the robot arm would consider it as a safe signal to put the item into the liquid.

In a press release, one of the study researchers, Carmel Majidi revealed,