Building the First Living Robots

A team of scientists at the University of Vermont and Tufts University designed living robots on a UVM supercomputer. Then, at Tufts, they re-purposed living frog cells -- and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These tiny ’xenobots’ can move on their own, circle a target and heal themselves after being cut. These novel living machines are neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. They’re a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism. They could, one day, be used for tas