A robot that can think using rat's brains has been developed at the University of Reading. The robot can avoid objects without the use of additional support from humans or technology. The brains aren't physically located in the robot, but are kept in a food-rich environment. They communicate with the robot using Bluetooth.

The robot uses the neocortex of a rat-fetus as brain. This was treated to ensure that the neurons are no longer in connection with one another. A piece of this was placed in a food-rich environment and placed on sixty electrodes. Afterwards new connections were made. Brains cells are thus shown to be capable of making new connections provided they are kept in an environment where they don’t die off.

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