Bioengineers at the University of California, L.A., have created microscopic robots powered by living heart cells, without any external power source.

Researchers used cells of rat heart muscle tissue and got them to grow onto tiny robotic skeletons made of plastic or silicon.

One of the “bio-bots” looked like a minuscule pair of frog legs. “A microdevice had two “legs” extending from the body at 45-degree angles; each leg had a “foot” extending at a 45-degree angle,” the researchers wrote.

Professor Carlo Montemagno, who leads the experiments, says the muscle tissue grown like this could be used in a host of microscopic devices, even to drive miniature electrical generators to power computer chips.

It could eventually be possible to grow self-assembling machines using the method.

The news raises the question of to what degree the robots can be said to be alive.

Via Reuters and BBC. MP3 report.