PARIS, May 9 (UPI) -- European Union scientists say they've succeeded in controlling cockroaches by using insbots -- insect-like mobile robots slightly larger than a thumbnail.
And that success, said the Paris-based researchers, hints at a future in which we can interact and communicate with many different kinds of animals.
Developed under the European Commission's Future and Emerging Technologies initiative, the insbots are fitted with motors, wheels, rechargeable battery, computer processors, a light-sensing camera and an array of infrared proximity sensors.
When dropped into a small experimental area with a maze of curved walls, the robots move, turn, stop and navigate by avoiding the walls, obstacles or each other. When placed with cockroaches, the robots quickly adapt their behavior by mimicking the animals' movements. Coated with pheromones taken from roaches, the infiltrator robots even fool the insects into thinking they are real creatures.
The autonomous insbots call on specially developed algorithms to react to signals and responses from individual insects. That, say the scientists, results in a chain action or reaction between the artificial and natural agents -- a two-way interaction that is unique and very promising for sciences such as biology and robotics.
