ROBOts in cooperation with a bioCOENOSIS

Project Information

Robocoenosis

Grant agreement ID: 899520

DOI

10.3030/899520

Project closed

EC signature date 28 May 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 30 September 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

€ 2 999 921,25

EU contribution

€ 2 999 921,25

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAET GRAZ
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Robocoenosis (ROBOts in cooperation with a bioCOENOSIS)

Reporting period: 2024-06-01 to 2025-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Project Robocoenosis sought to introduce a novel paradigm of “life form in the loop”, which allows the development of new types of complex biohybrid entities, bringing together different living organisms and technological elements using a symbiotic/mutualistic method. These biohybrid entities have unique features in terms of energy harvesting, low-power electronics, sensing and actuation, and are fully integrated into their environment of operation. Moreover, they are autonomous, robust, and non-invasive owing to the use of adapted life forms and biodegradable materials. To demonstrate the potential of such radically new biohybrid entities, we performed a long-term autonomous field operation of underwater biomonitoring and sensing in sensible lakes. The developed biohybrid technology, including tools and methods to interface living organisms and technological elements, will be made accessible to a wide community including makers, students, scientists, engineers and SMEs. By enabling this community of high-potential actors to enter the field of biohybrid design, we will foster this paradigm and the development and extension of biohybrid technology.

The main objectives of the project have been:
Establishing a standardised method on how to develop and run a biohybrid entity to observe aquatic environments.
Developing the Biohybrid organs with scientists and stakeholders responsible for sensible lakes.

Besides these main objectives, the project also aimed to foster progress in the research fields of “zero energy electronics”, “long term autonomous devices”, “microbial fuel cells” and “biodegradable robotics”.

Towards the end, the project Robocoenosis achieved multiple working biohybrid entities collecting data in several months-long experiments. The developed toolset of biohybrid entities proved to deliver novel insights into aquatic environments by observing a mixture of well defined organisms together with observations of the larger ecosystem surrounding the biohybrids. The project also gathered feedback by working with stakeholders, which has already been partly integrated into the biohybrid entities. The work on the developed biohybrids will continue in multiple follow-up projects (e.g. BioDiMoBot) with the goal of making further scientific improvements and advancing the developed technologies into a market ready state.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first two work periods, the Robocoenosis consortium developed a number of prototypes of different biohybrid organs, as well as prototypes of the core electronic components. These prototypes were tested both in the laboratory and in the field. The different biohybrid organs are now ready to be assembled into a biohybrid entity consisting of several biological life forms and electronic elements. All plans and developments have been intensively discussed with stakeholders interested in innovative techniques for environmental monitoring of lakes. Several publications were produced to present the first results of Robocoenosis to the community. Robocoenosis was also presented to the public at several press events.
In the third period, the integration of all biohybrid organs into a fully functional biohybrid began, with the first field tests starting in the last quarter of the work period. In parallel, all biohybrid organs were further tested in long-term field experiments and new analysis tools, including AI approaches, were developed. During the third work period, the project was increasingly presented in various public media, conferences and meetings with stakeholders and policymakers.
In the last work period, the integration of the biohybrid entity was fully finalised. The full biohybrid was tested in multiple one-month or longer experiments and delivered a large amount of biological and environmental data. The data analysis was enhanced by using neural network and AI approaches more extensively, especially for the image and video data. The patentability of different parts and developments has been checked, or they are currently being prepared for patenting. Additionally, multiple scientific journal and conference papers have been published or will be published shortly after the finalisation of the project. The interaction with potential stakeholders also has been largely increased in the last work period of Robocoenosis and resulted in a follow-up project called “BioDiMoBot”.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Scientific and technological contributions:
1. Establishing autonomous biohybrid entities combining technological parts with living organisms for environmental monitoring lays the foundation for a radically new approach, enabling qualitative sensing, sustainable actuation and power generation methods.
2. The technology evaluates physiological conditions of bioindicator species without destructive sampling or manipulation that could affect biological responses. Life forms as sensors provide new data sources using ultra-sensitive sensory systems of perfectly adapted organisms, enabling detection of previously undetectable phenomena and interactions.
3. The biohybrids provide real-time continuous biological signal acquisition coupled with physico-chemical environmental data. Underwater acoustic positioning with inertial and differential GPS systems enable habitat mapping and soundscape/chemoscape recognition.

Economic and social impact:
4. Due to modularity, each Robocoenosis organ can be applied beyond the demonstration. MFCs can benefit land-based robotics, agricultural robotics, etc., initiating industry-ready crossovers.
5. Demonstrating MFC capabilities in real-world applications will trigger new product lines and market segments for ultra-low-power consumer devices powered by small, mobile, easy-to-use microbial fuel cells.
6. Inexpensive, reliable, ultra-long-term monitoring devices will transform marine science, surveillance and offshore industries through continuous surveillance and early warning systems.
7. Detailed ethical discussion of using life forms as functional modules will enable policymakers to ensure protection while enabling community and industry use of life forms as information-rich functional modules.

Building European research capacity:
8. Bringing together biologists, ethologists, engineers, material scientists, roboticists and ecologists, the consortium anchors the "life form in the loop" paradigm through interdisciplinary infrastructure (biohybrid entities, methods) accessible to wider communities via competitions, conferences, fairs and events.
9. The paradigm's inherent interdisciplinarity strengthens interconnections between technical and natural sciences, tightening cooperation as new scientific and economic opportunities arise.

Group photo of members of Robocoenosis together with the first integrated biohybrid

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Field prototype of the Daphnia organ

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Field prototype of the mussel organ

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