Undercover robots fool cockroaches
16 November 2007
Scientists have invented a robot that can convince cockroaches it's one of them. The robo-roaches infiltrate insect groups, changing their behaviour. But what's the point? Antenna discovers how robots might help us handle animal herds in future.
This research was published in the journal Science on 16 November 2007.
Image: Jose Halloy
Many people think cockroaches are just mindless pests, but they have intelligence in numbers and together make clever choices over food and shelter.
They're not smart enough to spot an imposter though...
It makes sense for cockroaches to be social - they can share food, and the more bugs there are in a group, the more chance they've got of spotting a predator.
Image: Jose Halloy
This little robot might not have a cockroach's good looks, but its smell is spot-on. It's wrapped in paper that gives off the same scent as a single cockroach.
Image: Jose Halloy
This robo-roach has got the bugs fooled. They think it's just another cockroach, when actually it's a secret agent. It's programmed to prefer light to dark - the opposite to nocturnal cockroaches - and just a few robots can change the behaviour of a whole insect group. |
The rebellious light-loving robots make a cockroach group more than twice as likely to pick a bright shelter over a dark one, contrary to their natural instincts. Only by being accepted into the group can the robots influence behaviour like this.
'The robots can detect the cockroaches and react to their actions - it's the first time this has been done with a group of animals,' says Jose Halloy, an animal behaviour expert at Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. 'We also put cockroach scent on the robots. The insects accept each robot as if it was just another cockroach.'
Jose Halloy, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Image: Jose Halloy
But what's so exciting about a robo-roach? The answer is that this might be just the beginning for hi-tech herders...
'It's significant that the robots are actually behaving like animals,' says Barbara Webb, an expert on robot models of animal behaviour at Edinburgh University. 'It could lead to new ways to interact with groups of animals, such as a robot bee that could influence a swarm of bees so that they forage in a certain area.'
Barbara Webb, Edinburgh University
Image: Barbara Webb