{"84091":{"#nid":"84091","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Create Robotic \u0027Semi-Living Artist\u0027","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWorking from their university labs in two different corners of the world, U.S. and Australian researchers have created what they call a new class of creative beings, \u0022the semi-living artist\u0022 - a picture-drawing robot in Perth, Australia whose movements are controlled by the brain signals of cultured rat cells in Atlanta. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EGripping three colored markers positioned above a white canvas, the robotic drawing arm operates based on the neural activity of a few thousand rat neurons placed in a special petri dish that keeps the cells alive. The dish, a Multi-Electrode Array (MEA), is instrumented with 60 two-way electrodes for communication between the neurons and external electronics.  The neural signals are recorded and sent to a computer that translates neural activity into robotic movement.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe network of brain cells, located in Professor Steve Potter\u0027s lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and the mechanical arm, located in the lab of Guy Ben-Ary at the University of Western Australia in Perth, interact in real-time through a data exchange system via an Internet connection between the robot and the brain cells.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd while the robot\u0027s drawings won\u0027t put any artists out of business (picture the imaginative scribbling of a three-year-old), the semi-living artist\u0027s work has a deeper significance. The team hopes to bridge the gap between biological and artificial systems to produce a machine capable of matching the intelligence of even the simplest organism. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We\u0027re attempting to create an entity that over time will evolve, learn, and express itself through art,\u0022 said Potter, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EPotter and his team in the Laboratory for Neuroengineering at Georgia Tech began collaborating with Ben-Ary\u0027s team at Western Australia in 2002. They call the robot \u0022MEART,\u0022 which stands for multi-electrode array art. The project combines the technology of multi-electrode arrays at Potter\u0027s lab with the robotic and artistic ingenuity of the team at Western Australia, called the \u0022SymbioticA Research Group.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAt the time, Ben-Ary and his group were conducting research into meshing biological technology and artistry in a project called \u0022Fish \u0026amp; Chips.\u0022 In that project, the team used music to stimulate electrical activity from a few fish neurons cultured on silicon chips, which in turn controlled a robotic arm.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The goals are both to learn more about how brains work and to apply what is learned to designing fundamentally different types of artificial computing systems,\u0022 said Ben-Ary, who directs the Image Acquisition and Analysis Facility in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at Western Australia.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMeanwhile, Potter\u0027s group was already connecting cultures containing living neurons to computers using multi-electrode arrays that stimulate and record mammalian neurons. Most notably, the group developed the first robotic device whose movements are controlled by a cultured neural network capable of adaptive behavior and learning. They call the hybrid robot a \u0022Hybrot.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe neural activity recorded by the electrodes is transmitted over a two-way communication system and processed both in Atlanta and Perth to control the robotic drawing arm. Depending on how the neuro-electrical activity fires, the robotic arm will draw on a portion of the canvas or choose how many colored markers to use at one time and which colors it will use. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ECentral to the experiments is Potter\u0027s belief that over time the teams will be able to establish a cultured in vitro network system that learns like the living brains in people and animals do. To achieve that, the information from the robot\u0027s sensors is sent back through the system to the cultured network of cells in the form of electrical stimuli. By closing the loop, the group hopes the robot will learn something about itself and its environment. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I hope that this merging of art and science will get the artists thinking about our science, and the scientists thinking about what is art and what is the minimum needed to make a creative entity,\u0022 Potter said. \u0022On the science side, I hope that we can look at the drawings it makes and see some evidence of learning.  Then we can scrutinize the cultured network under the microscope to help understand the learning process at the cellular level.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAt the University of Western Australia, the SymbioticA Research Group is managed by Oron Catts and directed by Professors Miranda Grounds and Stuart Bunt in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology. Phil Gamblen developed the robotic arm. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENote: The semi-living artist will be on display at \u0022ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show\u0022 (\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/artbots.org\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/artbots.org\u003C\/a\u003E) in New York City July 12 and 13 at the Eyebeam Gallery.\u003C\/em\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Working from their university labs in two different corners of the world, U.S. and Australian researchers have created what they call a new class of creative beings, \u0022the semi-living artist\u0022 - a picture-drawing robot in Perth, Australia whose movements are controlled by the brain signals of cultured rat cells in Atlanta.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Tech cells give life to robotic artist in Australia"}],"uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2003-07-08 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:06","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2003-07-08T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2003-07-08T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"84101":{"id":"84101","type":"image","title":"MEART","body":null,"created":"1449178102","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:28:22","changed":"1475894704","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:04"},"84111":{"id":"84111","type":"image","title":"MEART drawing","body":null,"created":"1449178102","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:28:22","changed":"1475894704","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:04"}},"media_ids":["84101","84111"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.adl.gatech.edu\/research\/xdisc\/","title":"For Students: Cross-Disciplinary Learning Project"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.neuro.gatech.edu\/potter\/PotterGroup.htm","title":"Laboratory for Neuroengineering at Georgia Tech"},{"url":"http:\/\/userwww.service.emory.edu\/~ashkoln\/meart\/","title":"MEART Page (Maintained at Georgia Tech)"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.fishandchips.uwa.edu.au\/meart\/galleries\/install\/11.html","title":"MEART Page (Maintained at University of Western Australia)"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELisa Grovenstein\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=lgrovenste3\u0022\u003EContact Lisa Grovenstein\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-8835\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.grovenstein@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}