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"Cyber-Roach" Forces Rethink On Animal Movement

Posted by Soulskill on from the living-under-your-cyber-fridge dept.

Lanxon writes "A team of researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in London has built a 'cyber-cockroach' (a cockroach wearing an accelerometer in a tiny backpack) to try and better understand the movements of many-legged animals. They found that unlike bipedal creatures, animals with more than two legs don't adjust their movements when walking over a softer surface." The academic paper is available from the Journal of Experimental Biology. This research will be helpful in finding better ways for multi-legged robots to navigate difficult terrain.

2 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. A bit of a stretch by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... animals with more than two legs don't adjust their movements when walking over a softer surface ...

    ... should probably read "some insects don't adjust their movements when walking over a softer surface". To extend this claim from cockroaches to all animals is so stupid it doesn't even rise to the level of "bad science."

  2. Re:I for one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I didn't consider that interpretation, but it's far more hilarious.

    I read it like so: Cyber-Roach [invention] forces [a] rethink on Animal Movement. Not as being the literal movement of animals, but a reconsideration of some animal-rights activist group.

    Seriously, WTF. Worst headline ever.