Imagine a robot that moves like a starfish, inching its way across a wooden floor—not powered by conventional batteries or cords, but driven by signals from mushrooms. This is not science fiction but the latest breakthrough from researchers at Cornell University, who have developed robots controlled by fungi, presenting a groundbreaking step in biohybrid robotics.
What Are Biohybrid Robots?
Biohybrid robotics is a revolutionary field that merges plant, animal, and fungal cells with synthetic materials to create robots that are more adaptable and environmentally friendly. While previous biohybrid robots have used animal cells—like mouse neurons or rat muscle cells—to create moving parts, these approaches often come with high costs and ethical concerns. Plant cells, on the other hand, can be slow to respond to stimuli. Enter fungi, which offer a unique solution to these challenges, as highlighted in a new study published in Science Robotics.
How Do Fungi-Controlled Robots Work?
The process begins with mycelia, the vast network of tiny strands that connect mushrooms underground. Researchers at Cornell chose the king oyster mushroom for its easy cultivation and maintenance. They directed the mycelia to grow on a 3D-printed scaffold embedded with electrodes.
When environmental changes occur, these interconnected mycelia emit electrical impulses, similar to how neurons in the human brain communicate. By connecting these mycelial networks to electrodes, the impulses are translated into digital commands via a computer interface. These commands are then sent to the robot’s motors and valves, instructing them to move. The fungi’s ability to communicate with the computer interface enables real-time responses to stimuli, like light.
“Mushrooms don’t like light; they thrive in darkness,” explains Robert Shepherd, an engineer at Cornell and a co-author of the study. By shining ultraviolet light on the fungi-computer interface, the electrical signals from the fungi strengthen, making the robots move faster.
Potential Applications for Fungi-Controlled Robots
1. Agriculture and Environmental Monitoring
These fungi-powered robots could revolutionize agriculture by detecting chemical contaminants, poisons, or pathogens more effectively than traditional synthetic robots. Fungi are incredibly sensitive to environmental changes, offering a unique advantage in monitoring crop fields.
2. Extreme Environment Exploration
According to Anand Mishra, another engineer at Cornell, fungal cells are resilient—they can survive in salty water, extreme cold, and even high radiation levels. This makes them ideal for extreme environment exploration and for detecting radiation at hazardous sites, where traditional biohybrid robots might fail.
3. Sustainable Robotics
Vickie Webster-Wood, an engineer at Carnegie Mellon University, praises the sustainability of these biohybrid robots. Unlike conventional robots made from plastics and heavy metals, which can become pollutants if not recovered, fungi-based robots are biodegradable. For instance, a biohybrid robot made from plant cells could aid in reforestation, while a medical robot created from a patient’s cells could operate within the human body.
4. Space Robotics
The adaptability and low-resource requirements of fungi-controlled robots make them particularly promising for space exploration. Webster-Wood suggests that a small quantity of mycelium could be sent to remote locations or space, where it could grow and be used to construct robots on-site, reducing the need for heavy payloads.
The Future of Fungi in Robotics
Fungi offer a resilient, sustainable, and adaptable foundation for the next generation of robots. Their ability to survive harsh conditions and their ease of cultivation make them ideal for long-term applications. “Keeping the mycelium alive in a robot seems to be easier than maintaining systems like mouse muscle,” notes Webster-Wood, pointing to the potential for extended missions in challenging environments.
Fungi-controlled robots are on the brink of revolutionizing not just robotics but our entire approach to sustainability, agriculture, environmental monitoring, and even space exploration. This breakthrough opens up endless possibilities for creating efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly solutions that are both innovative and transformative.
