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The world’s first “Living” Robots – Xenobots

                       

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 The world’s first-ever living robots were created by researchers from the University of Vermont and Tufts University. These living robots are formally known as Xenobots. These new micro-machines are in fact brand new programmable lifeforms that researchers believe could help clean microplastics from oceans or even repair organs inside human bodies. These Xenobots were created by using stem cells which are grown from the embryos of the African Clawed frog and an advanced computer algorithm. T
he anatomical blueprint for a computer-designed organism discovered on a UVM supercomputer, that allowed the team to build a new form of life, that has never existed before. Stem cells were first differentiated into skin and heart cells. 



               The skin cells were chosen for their capability to bond together to form the passive architecture of the Xenobot, while heart cells were selected for their ability to contract and relax, with the goal of manufacturing a type of tiny engine that would push the Xenobots. After observing the natural mechanism between the skin and heart cells, the data was given into an evolutionary algorithm that runs on a supercomputer. Based on this given data, the algorithm was able to generate millions of different cell configurations, for which it can be tested for the desired outcome. In this case, the desired outcome is to get movements in the cells, where their designs then crafted into better digital models. 

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After about a 100 test runs, only the very best configurations were left. the team finally had a winning blueprint for their new life forms and now all they want is to create a new form for the bots. The team used tiny forceps and a microscope to painstakingly perform microsurgery 
on heart and skin cells to create their novel organisms. That’s it the researchers created their first xenobots. 

                   



             
The biobots could propel themselves, moving in straight lines or in circles. They could work together, herding loose particles into tiny heaps, and when cut open, the xenobots healed themselves. Understanding exactly how cells do this is ultimately the goal behind this research. Cells are incredibly intelligent and there are so still many things that we don’t know about how they work, like how do they communicate to build complex bodies or even heal? If we could decode those signals, scientists could build smarter robots with pre-programmed tasks that would be biodegradable and biocompatible. And these little xenobots are just the first step in figuring out how to control anatomy. But the applications aren’t just limited to the medical field. 








                     The team’s future plan is to assign individual tasks to a large group of xenobots is used to collect microplastics from the ocean or search and collect radioactive contaminants. So ultimately, these xenobots are just the first steps in trying to understand how life starts, should we expect to see them moving through our bloodstreams any time soon? 


            Let’s tell me about your ideas and views on this first-ever living robots in the comment section.


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