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Cockroach-Controlled Robot

Posted by timothy on 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."

9 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Debugging impossible? by NoseBag · · Score: 5, Funny

    Debugging the project is inherently impossible.

    They are obviously not using RAID.

    --
    Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
    1. Re:Debugging impossible? by Tsar · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually, a RAID (Redundant Array of Insect Drivers) would make such a device much more reliable--as long as it wasn't implemented as JBOD (Just a Bunch of Dead ones).

    2. Re:Debugging impossible? by scolbe · · Score: 5, Funny
      Debugging the project is inherently impossible.


      That's not a bug!.. that's a feature.
      --
      Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself 8+)
  2. New proof by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This research also proved that the roach controlled robot drove better than 86 percent of Southern Californian motorists. Maybe we should all have roaches as chauffeurs.

  3. Let's put them to work! by DanCentury · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're already in the kitchen -- let's hook them up to the blender and Cuisinart.

  4. Eventually..... by Misanthrope · · Score: 5, Funny

    Eventually they'll have to switch to lawyers, there are some things even roaches won't do.

  5. On being a roach by macmurph · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I suddenly found myself in madagascar with a huge piece of velcro on my back, headlights blinking into my eyes, a ball beneath my feet... I would try and run like hell too.

  6. had a similar idea many years ago by DaFrogg · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had an idea for roaches as controllers years ago, but everyone said I was nuts. If I had just ignored my stoner friends, I could have been a pioneer! OK, so I wanted them guiding little rockets, but still...

  7. This is plain un-Amurrican by Urusai · · Score: 5, Funny

    They should be using good old American cockroaches instead of them hissy Madagasgadooian roaches. Must outsourcing take away all our jobs?