Origin of life from a maker's perspective -- focus on protocellular compartments in bottom-up synthetic biology

The origin of life is shrouded in mystery, with few surviving clues, obscured by evolutionary competition. Previous reviews have touched on the complementary approaches of top-down and bottom-up synthetic biology to augment our understanding of living systems. Here we point out the synergies between these fields, especially between bottom-up synthetic biology and origin of life research. We explore recent progress made in artificial cell compartmentation in line with the crowded cell, its metabolism, as well as cycles of growth and division, and how those efforts are starting to be combined. Though the complexity of current life is among its most striking characteristics, none of life's essential features require it, and they are unlikely to have emerged thus complex from the beginning. Rather than recovering the one true origin lost in time, current research converges towards reproducing the emergence of minimal life, by teasing out how complexity and evolution may arise from a set of essential components.

NimbRo Rescue: Solving Disaster-Response Tasks through Mobile Manipulation Robot Momaro

Robots that solve complex tasks in environments too dangerous for humans to enter are desperately needed, e.g. for search and rescue applications. We describe our mobile manipulation robot Momaro, with which we participated successfully in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. It features a unique locomotion design with four legs ending in steerable wheels, which allows it both to drive omnidirectionally and to step over obstacles or climb. Furthermore, we present advanced communication and teleoperation approaches, which include immersive 3D visualization, and 6D tracking of operator head and arm motions. The proposed system is evaluated in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, the DLR SpaceBot Cup Qualification and lab experiments. We also discuss the lessons learned from the competitions.