Open Worm is an open source community dedicated to creating a virtual Caenorhabditis Elegans, a 1-millimeter-long nematode.
C. Elegans is a very simple organism that has already been thoroughly researched. We know exactly how many nerve cells it has and understand its entire connectome (all the connections in its nervous system). One thing the Open Worm team has done with all this information is feed it into the microcontroller of a robot. The body parts of the worm are replicated in the robot with digital building blocks. The robot can navigate freely without additional programming – if it meets an obstacle while searching for virtual food, it turns around and finds new ways to reach its goal.
Credits: © 2011–2018 OpenWorm Foundation; OpenWorm Foundation is a Delaware Non-Profi t Corporation, Code licensed under MIT; robot construction: Thomes E. Portegys, openworm.org
This project is co-funded by the European Commission’s DG CONNECT, in the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union under the S+T+ARTS programme’s Regional STARTS Centers.