Physarum microfluidic gates are slow: their speed is on the order
of seconds, much slower than silicon gates. However, slime mold
microfluidic gates are self-growing and self-repairing and can be
incorporated into hybrid wetware: hardware devices for sensing
and analyzing non-lethal substances, and the detection of molecules
or certain types of living cell . The Physarum microfluidic
gates could form the basis for disposable biocompatible mechanically
controlled devices , as embedded fluidic controllers and
circuits in bio-inspired robots or memory arrays [22,23]
embedded into soft-bodied robots.