In continuing our quest to find the craziest robotic invention out there, Harvard scientists may have just taken the grand prize. Their inspiration for the latest innovation in robotics? Cockroaches. Yup, as disgusting and creepy as they are, these little buggers are actually teaching robots how to walk up walls… and its working!
Harvard’s iteration of the bug, named HAMR (Harvard’s Ambulatory Microrobot) has the capability of walking on water, diving, and climbing back to the surface. It could be a potential life saver on dangerous diving missions when the prototype is fully complete. When the robot was first introduced in 2013, it was expected to fly as well, but developers switched towards diving capabilities. The lightweight microrobot sends a small jolt of electricity to break the surface tension of water without hurting the bot itself or nearby marine life. Developers are looking for ways to improve the robot’s capability on land, such as adding adhesives to its legs or adding a jumping mechanism.
At UC Berkley, a similar hexapod robot is being developed using live roaches as the focus of the study. Observers have noted that when a cockroach wants to climb a wall, it collides with it head on, continuing to rotate its legs in a similar motion as it scales the wall. Programmers made it so their hexapod did the same thing, trying to replicate the motion and allow for the robot to scale walls just like the indestructible bug of our nightmares.
I’m all for science developing new inventions, but I don’t want regular cockroaches around my home… Therefore, I’m taking a hard pass on robotic ones.
