Cockroach-Controlled Robot

Posted by timothy on Saturday May 21, 2005 @07:46AM from the no-*you*-do-it-yourself dept.

robotsrule writes "The latest issue of Make Magazine volume 2 from O'Reilly publishing has an article on a cockroach controlled robot. Roboticist Garnet Hertz has mounted a Giant Madagascan Hissing Cockroach that drives a small mobile robot around by walking on top of a Kensington trackball. There is a row of proximity sensor triggered LEDs that shine light in the roach's eyes, making him steer the robot since roaches instinctively avoid light. Garnet's web page 'Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine' details the project with several images of the roach in action. Debugging the project is inherently impossible."

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Uh... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-05-21 07:51 · Score: 2, Insightful

If this isn't a Rube Goldberg contraption, I don't know what is.

It's very cool, but odd. I mean, seriously: shine a light in a certain way to make a Giant Hissing cockroach move in a certain direction, which then moves the robot?

I assume there are simpler ways of directing robots.
AKA by Ann+Elk · 2005-05-21 08:00 · Score: 2, Insightful

The Matrix, version 0.1 proof-of-concept
Deus Ex by mattjb0010 · 2005-05-21 08:21 · Score: 2, Insightful

Gromphadorhina portentosa, deus ex machina.