Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, created an insect-sized robot that moves like a cockroach—and is nearly as robust.
The tiny cyborg (about the size of a large postage stamp) can scurry across the floor at nearly the speed of a darting roach.
And don’t bother trying to squash it: It’ll probably just keep scooting along.
“Most of the robots at this particular small scale are very fragile. If you step on them, you pretty much destroy the robot,” senior study author Liwei Lin, a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, said in a statement.
“We found that if we put weight on our robot, it still more or less functions.”
The pint-sized critters are being developed with search-and-rescue missions in mind: Their flexibility and small scale make them ideal for squeezing into cramped spaces.
As an added bonus, the bots can enter places too dangerous for humans or animals.
“For example, if an earthquake happens, it’s very hard for the big machines, or the big dogs, to find life underneath debris,” the paper’s first author Yichuan Wu said. “So that’s why we need a small-sized robot that is agile and robust.”
The full study was published late last month in the journal Science Robotics.
Cockroach robots aren’t new.
Last year, University of Connecticut professor Abhishek Dutta created a robot-roach hybrid—a hardwired biological insect—based on the Madagascar hissing cockroach.
A couple of real-life Dr. Frankensteins, Dutta and undergraduate student Evan Faulkner attached a microcircuit to the roach for more reliable and precise control. The tiny computer can detect six degrees of free motion, acceleration, and direction.
A Bluetooth transmitter and receiver allows nearby operation via smartphone.
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