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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when engineers go stupid... by vistic · 2005-05-21 10:46 · Score: 0, Troll

what the hell is the point of this, anyway? I see no usefulness in it, just some losers playing with bugs.

You steer the cockroach by shining light in its eyes, which makes the cockroach move one way or another on the pingpong ball... so... why is the cockroach there at all? And not just control the robot directly. This just adds an extra step in the process which makes the system less reliable.

This is stupid tech.