Title: Analog control with two Artificial Axons,
Abstract: The artificial axon is a recently introduced synthetic assembly of supported
lipid bilayers and voltage gated ion channels, displaying the basic
electrophysiology of nerve cells. Here we demonstrate the use of two artificial
axons as control elements to achieve a simple task. Namely, we steer a remote
control car towards a light source, using the sensory input dependent firing
rate of the axons as the control signal for turning left or right. We present
the result in the form of the analysis of a movie of the car approaching the
light source. In general terms, with this work we pursue a constructivist
approach to exploring the nexus between machine language at the nerve cell
level and behavior.