Many of you probably don’t see much of these things around your house, but you’re bound to see it a least once every week. Cockroaches are long living insects that can even live for days without their heads. Little do we know that these insects might even be living in our walls, in our rooms, and maybe on our beds. Wherever it is, it doesn’t do any harm to us, but seeing these things walking around disgusts most of us.
I’m also sorry if the header pic disgusts some of you because it certainly does to my wife and I. WE HATE BUGS!!
Scientists have discovered a new way to work around these roach problems that some of us may have in our house. Scientists in Lausanne, Switzerland, have successfully tested the robot roach, InsBot, in these roach colonies. InsBot stands for “insect-like robot” (what a great name right? LOL), which mimics the roaches’ smell and movements to the point where the robot is considered one of their own homies.
“InsBot is green and about the size of a matchbox. It’s equipped with six two-dimensional colour cameras, two tactile antennae, a vibration sensor and a light sensor to detect when a cockroach is present – a difficult task because cockroaches are brown and tend to live in dark environments.”
Most roaches dislike the dark, so therefore we don’t see them much except at night. The scientists that work with the InsBot decided to use the robot to lead the roaches to a lighted room, rather than the a dark area. To their amazement, the roaches actually followed the robot due to companionship.
I’m sure some of you may have heard of these type of robots being made in the past, but they weren’t successful do the the size. The Insbot is the future and it seems like it’s working very well. The main reason for scientists experimenting with these type of robots is because they’re planning to move onto bigger projects. These type of projects are going to involve animals and could eventually control the animals’ behavior. With the Insbot, infestation in houses can be relieved easily.
“The ultimate goal of the project is to gain a better understanding of how animals interact to create a sort of collective intelligence. It may lead to innovative forms of artificial intelligence. I’m hoping it leads to more influence over pests.”
So I wonder who’s going to purchase these and use them in their house? I’m sure you’re going to have to put in a hefty amount because these things don’t come cheap.
Sources: IT Pro, Technovelgy
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