Scientists from the university of Reading have created a simple wheeled robot with distance sensors that is controlled wirelessly by a network of cells from a rat's brain. The sensor data is fed to the neurons which reside in a nutrient/antibiotic solution - the cells output is then transmitted to the 'body' as control commands. The images in the above video make it all look surprisingly simple
- 'Rat-brain-controlled' robot on BBC News
- Rise of the rat-brained robots on New Scientist
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/08/robot_with_a_rats_brain.html