If last year DARPA was marked by combat robots, cyborg soldiers and paramilitary drones, now the agency is betting on the next generation of defense technology, which will take an example from natural life forms, and therefore synthetic biology will become one of the main directions of military development.
The goal is to create artificial living supermaterials that can be used for the next generation of mechanical and electrical products, self-healing materials, renewable fuels, solar panels, and so on.
In 2010, the agency announced the launch of the Biodesign program, which will explore ways to create genetically immortal synthetic creatures with a programmable deactivation switch that can be clicked at any time to put future creatures in the “Off” state.
In addition to creating new living materials, the agency's long-standing research in the fields of neurology, epidemiology, disease, prosthetics and other sciences about living organisms will be brought together into the biotechnological block.
All of them will work in all seriousness on futuristic, even by DARPA standards, projects.
For example, research will continue to develop controlled limbs that allow the human brain to fuse with cybernetic body parts. Already today, prostheses that are directly connected to the nervous system can be controlled using brain signals directed to healthy muscles. Connecting robotic limbs directly to the brain is next on the list.
About a year ago, the agency tested the chips implanted in the skull on paralyzed volunteers. These chips can transmit nerve signals that control motor functions and use them to control high-end automated weapons.
Researchers are now working to create bi-directional signaling systems so that patients can not only control the prosthesis with a signal from the brain, but also receive impulses back into the nervous system, which gives the sensation of physical touch.
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DARPA is the US Advanced Research Projects Agency. Famous for its cutting-edge robotics, such as the walking mule robot or the fast-running robot cheetah.