Abstract

Living Machines is an international conference series concerned with the development of future real-world technologies that harness the principles underlying living systems and the flow of communication signals between living and artificial systems. The conference highlights the most exciting contemporary research in biomimetics—the development of ovel technologies through the distillation of principles from the study of biological systems, and biohybrids—formed by combining a biological component—an existing living system—with an artificial, newly-engineered component. The concept of “Living Machine” captures the insight that useful artificial entities can be designed by copying life, and, at the same time, that we can understand biological organisms, including ourselves, as living machines “designed” by nature. Some of the most interesting new developments in biomimetic and biohybrid technologies, grouped under five themes, together with some striking examples of contemporary biomimetic or biohybrid art, have been selected for presentation at the Living Machines Exhibition, a one-day event at the Science Museum in London. Highlights of the 2013 Living Machines exhibition include:
• A musical performance featuring the iCub humanoid robot
• Mammal-like robots with whiskered touch systems
• A robot model of fossilised animal behaviour from the dawn of life
• Biomimetic medical devices including a wasp-like needle for minimally-invasive
surgery
• A robot that powers itself by digesting human waste
• Micro-flying robots, worm, octopus, fish and mammal-like robots
• Biohybrid clothing made with living cells and robots controlled by slime mould
• Live visual art generated by the Artificial Intelligence AARON, created by Harold Cohen
• A string quartet performing music generated by the Artificial Intelligence EMI, created
by David Cope.