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SCIENCETuesday 9 February 2016
An icky new hero: Roach-like robots may help in disasters
SETH BORENSTEIN This photo provided by PolyPEDAL Lab UC Berkeley, shows the compressible robot, CRAM with a eventually cost less than
AP Science Writer $10 apiece.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When real cockroach. In the past, when engineers
buildings collapse in future looked at trying to create
disasters, the hero helping Associated Press robots that could get into
rescue trapped people tight places, they thought
may be a robotic cock- study about the prototype Robot with Articulated most difficult part was the about shape-changing soft
roach. animals like worms, slugs or
Repulsive as they may be, cockroach robot. “I think Mechanisms, or CRAM, design, but after that he octopuses, Full said. But the
roaches have the remark- cockroach, which already
able ability to squish their they’re really disgusting looks more like an armadillo used off-the-shelf electron- is studied by roboticists
bodies down to one quar- for other abilities, has cer-
ter their normal size, yet and really revolting, but and walks sort of like Char- ics and motors, cardboard, tain advantages, includ-
still scamper at lightning ing crush-resistance and
speed. Also, they can with- they always tell us some- lie Chaplin when it’s com- polyester and some knowl- speed.
stand 900 times their body With nothing in its way, the
weight without being hurt. thing new.” pressed. It’s about 20 times edge of origami. American cockroach can
The amazing cockroach in- travel 50 body lengths in a
spired scientists to create a The study was published the size of the roach that in- All told, the prototype prob- second, which would be
mini-robot that can mimic the equivalent of a human
those feats of strength and Monday in the journal Pro- spired it. And it’s simple and ably cost less than $100, running more than 140 mph
agility. (225 kph), Full said. When
The researchers hope ceedings of the National cheap. Jayaram said. He figures if compressed, the cock-
swarms of future roach-like roach slows to 20 body
robots could be fitted with Academy of Sciences. Co-author Kaushik mass-produced, with sen- lengths per second.
cameras, microphones Full and colleagues found
and other sensors and The palm-size prototype, Jayaram, a Harvard ro- sors and other equipment roaches used a newly iden-
then used in earthquakes tified type of locomotion to
and other disasters to help called the Compressible botics researcher, said the added on, the robots could ooze through cracks and
search for victims. The skit- crevices based on the ide-
tering robots could also let al amount of belly friction.
rescuers know if the rubble Still, the robot designers
pile is stable. have no love for the bug
Cockroaches “seem to be that inspired them.
able to go anywhere,” said “I’m still creeped out by
University of California at them,” Jayaram said. “I
Berkeley biology professor don’t want them in my
Robert Full, co-author of a house.”q
