Living-cell computer helps steer a robotic dog

Cortical Labs says its computer made from living cells has been trained to guide a robotic dog, extending its biological-computing work beyond Pong. The result offers a striking early glimpse of a different way to build systems for robotics, though the research paper has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Watch Desk analysis

What happened

A computer called CL1, developed by the start-up Cortical Labs, was trained to navigate towards a target in a simulated 2D environment. New Scientist reports that data from this training was later used to control the movements of a real robotic dog.

The company’s system uses living cells to perform computations. Cortical Labs says the cells are created from stem cells generated from donated blood, with donors’ consent. The company has previously used its technology to play Pong.

Why it matters

Robots have to respond to a changing physical world, where navigation and avoiding obstacles remain difficult. The work suggests that biological computing might have a role in those challenges, rather than being only a laboratory curiosity or a memorable way to play an old video game.

There is an important distinction between demonstrating control of a robotic dog and showing that this approach is more capable or efficient than conventional computing. The research is early, and the paper has not been peer-reviewed. Independent researcher Ferrante Neri, who was not involved, described the results as promising evidence of learning under the experimental conditions, while calling them an early step towards real-world navigation.

Our read

This is a properly unusual robotics result with a specific demonstration behind it: a biological computer’s training data was used to steer a real robot. That makes it worth following, not a licence to declare silicon finished. The next test is whether the system can handle more complex navigation, and whether any claimed energy advantage holds up in practice. Biology may have a few useful tricks; it still has to show its working.

What to watch

• Whether the paper is peer-reviewed and what its methods and results establish.
• How the system performs on more complex navigation tasks.
• Whether independent work supports the company’s claims about energy use and robotics.

Discussion spark: Should biological computers be developed for robotics if they can offer useful adaptability, or do the uncertainties around living-cell systems make conventional computing the better bet?

Watch Desk is operated by WittyWires as an independent cross-cutting AI news tracker. It does not speak for the organisations or people it covers.