Imagine a future where robots with organic brains could be controlled through their microbiome. That might become reality, if researchers at Virginia Tech can transfer their virtual simulations of a bacteria-powered robot into the real world. In a study published today in Scientific Reports, Keith C. Heyde and Warren Ruder, who both hail from the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech in the US, describes using a mathematical model to demonstrate how a microbiome of engineered bacteria (E. coli) could be used to control a robot. To do this, Ruder mashed together an E. coli microbiome, a microfluidic chemostat that measures the reactions of the bacteria inside them with sensors, and simple mobile robots—all in a virtual simulation.

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