Vehicle for Cockroaches

William Robinson wrote to mention an entertaining Wired news article about vehicle meant for cockroaches. From the article: "Hertz has constructed a three-wheeled robotic vehicle that lets a Madagascan hissing cockroach navigate a room while perched atop a ping-pong ball. The ball works like a computer mouse's track ball. Where the roach moves on the ball, the vehicle moves in the room. Sensors on the bot can tell when it's going to hit something. It also has a semi-circle of LED lights facing the roach, so when it's about to hit an obstacle an LED will shine on the creature from the direction of the barrier, hopefully causing it to run in the other direction."

Comments

Re:Wow....

[DigiShaman]

I think your missing the point. While we are good at developing machinery and electronics, programming AI into the system has always been the problem.

The solution: Borrow an existing solution from nature. All you need is an insect, rat, or reptile to interface with the device and for them to obtain feedback with sensors it would closely be accustomed too.

Just imagine for a moment using a pigeon mounted inside a scramjet with the only purpose to get an item from point A to B in a battle field autonomously. How about using rodents to operate a robotic vehicle provide surveillance or rescue missions. The list goes on.