Bot Appétit

When it comes to food, tastes vary widely between individuals and cultures. For some, the mere mention of spicy dishes evokes excitement and anticipation, while others prefer the comforting warmth of mild flavors. The culinary preferences of individuals can be deeply rooted in their upbringing and heritage, with some finding solace in traditional family recipes passed down through generations, while others eagerly explore global cuisines, delighting in the diverse flavors and textures that they offer.

Some foods take a bit more getting used to than others. Consider odorigui, for example, which is popular with some individuals in Japan. This refers to the practice of eating live sea creatures, like the octopus, squid, and ice goby. With odorigui, the movement of the creatures is considered to be a part of the dining experience. For those that are not accustomed to this practice, reactions can range from disgust to concerns about the pain that the sea creatures are presumably experiencing.

As a fairly rare and somewhat unusual practice, odorigui has captured the attention of a number of researchers that would like to study it for a variety of reasons. But that can be … complicated. There are of course moral questions around the consumption of live animals, and furthermore, the way in which the animals react is not repeatable in different scenarios, so it can be difficult to collect data that helps to answer specific study questions.

You may think things have gotten weird in this article, but you haven’t seen anything yet. To address issues associated with the ethics and repeatability of studying the consumption of live animals, a team at Osaka University in Japan has developed a soft, edible robot that simulates the experience. It is sort of a giant chewy gummy worm with edible actuators that allow it to wiggle around as you chow down. Are you getting hungry yet?

To create the structure of the robot, gelatin was mixed with sugar for added strength. To make the body more flexible, calcium carbonate was also added to the recipe — this was important to maintain structural integrity during actuation. The final ingredient was apple juice, which gives the robot a nice flavor.

After working out the optimal proportions of each of the ingredients, they were mixed and poured into a mold. Empty channels were built into the mold design to allow for actuation of the robot. After being chilled for twelve hours, the robot was solid and ready for use. It then sits on a base that can inject air into the empty channels, causing them to inflate or deflate, which in turn causes the robot to wriggle around in predictable ways.

To better understand how people react to chomping on a giant, wiggling gummy worm, the researcher recruited a cohort of sixteen students to take part in a series of experiments. They were asked to leave the robot in their mouths for ten seconds, then take a bite (once bitten off of the base, the robot will stop moving). They were then asked questions related to how they felt about what they ate and if they had any feelings of guilt. Another set of study participants ate the robot while it remained still.

When comparing the two groups, the team found that the movement did impact the individuals’ perception of the texture of their food. It was also found that those in the group with the moving robot viewed the gummy as having intelligence and felt some degree of guilt for having eaten it. The participants tended to see the movement as a sign of life.

The experiences of the study participants show that it may be feasible to substitute animated edible robots for live animals in future research efforts. But first, the team will need to modify their system to more closely simulate specific animals — right now it is very generic and was not designed to simulate any particular animal.