Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body (2024)

the-independent.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 76 posts

Re: Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body (2024)

#11

Post by SequoiaHope »

lioeters wrote: post #9

Not sure about this particular experiment, but there is certainly interesting potential in integrating biological organisms (or parts thereof) with larger robotic and mechanical systems. Recently I saw a video of a turtle which was given a skateboard. It quickly learned how to zip around the house, chasing the cat, etc. It was a simple demostration of how technology, even as primitive as the wheel, can augment the ab…

Regarding the turtle and the goldfish, how can we really say these animals learned how to operate these things? I’m not sure I’d be able to tell the difference between a goldfish just swimming around the tank like normal versus one swimming around the tank with intention.

Re: Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body (2024)

#14

Post by akdor1154 »

SequoiaHope wrote: post #11
lioeters wrote: post #9

Not sure about this particular experiment, but there is certainly interesting potential in integrating biological organisms (or parts thereof) with larger robotic and mechanical systems. Recently I saw a video of a turtle which was given a skateboard. It quickly learned how to zip around the house, chasing the cat, etc. It was a simple demostration of how technology, even as primitive as the wheel, can augment the ab…

Regarding the turtle and the goldfish, how can we really say these animals learned how to operate these things? I’m not sure I’d be able to tell the difference between a goldfish just swimming around the tank like normal versus one swimming around the tank with intention.

I assume a fish that didn’t understand what was going on would just run into walls? Or at most just move towards lights?

Re: Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body (2024)

#15

Post by ofalkaed »

Legend2440 wrote: post #7

I’m skeptical that the mushroom is in any way “learning to crawl”. It looks more like the mushroom naturally produces signals in response to light, and the robot triggers a walk cycle when it sees that signal.

As a fungophile who spends way too much time crawling around in the woods looking for mushrooms, I think fungus learned to crawl before we did.

Re: Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body (2024)

#17

Post by trhway »

SequoiaHope wrote: post #11
lioeters wrote: post #9

Not sure about this particular experiment, but there is certainly interesting potential in integrating biological organisms (or parts thereof) with larger robotic and mechanical systems. Recently I saw a video of a turtle which was given a skateboard. It quickly learned how to zip around the house, chasing the cat, etc. It was a simple demostration of how technology, even as primitive as the wheel, can augment the ab…

Regarding the turtle and the goldfish, how can we really say these animals learned how to operate these things? I’m not sure I’d be able to tell the difference between a goldfish just swimming around the tank like normal versus one swimming around the tank with intention.

lets start working our beliefs up from easier places :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ_0ImDYrPY

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7H2IDc-5QdQ

Re: Mushroom learns to crawl after being given robot body (2024)

#19

Post by cloudbonsai »

This seems to be one of the researches from Organic Robotics Lab at Cornell Univ.

https://orl.mae.cornell.edu/

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/08/biohybrid-robots-co...

I believe that "learn" is a bit too strong word here. The fungi is essentially a UV light sensor. The researchers made a robot that moves in a certain way based on the biological signal.

So the mushroom is more like a passive sensor then an active pilot.

Post reply on HN