Researchers have mapped the brain of a roundworm species, and created a computer simulation that they used to control the movement of a robot made out of LEGO, as part of a project called OpenWorm.

Researchers have mapped the brain of a roundworm species, and created a computer simulation that they used to control the movement of a robot made out of LEGO’s, as part of a project called OpenWorm.

They chose to use the brain of a C. elegans roundworm, because the brain connections in the small worm have already been studied, and are only made up of 302 neurons.

For the study, they recreated a nervous system using sensors and software that imitates the thought processes of the roundworm, and installed that into a Lego Mindstorm EV3 robot.

OpenWorm Co-founder Timothy Busbice is quoted as saying: "What we found is that rather than just random, crazy movements by the robot, it actually responded to it's environment in the same manner as the biological worm.”

In place of the worm’s body is a LEGO robot with sensory neurons to gather data, such as a sonar sensor replicating the nose. Muscles from both sides of the worm have been mapped to motor neurons on the robot.

The latest part of the study has applied the worm brain simulation to the Raspberry Pi system and GoPiGo robot.

Busbice says his research goal is to create a living autonomous robot that could have a variety of uses.