WASHINGTON — When buildings collapse in future disasters, the hero helping rescue trapped people might be a robotic cockroach.
Repulsive as they might be, cockroaches have the remarkable ability to squish their bodies down to one quarter their normal size, yet still scamper at lightning speed. Also, they can withstand 900 times their body weight without being hurt. That’s equivalent to a 200-pound man who wouldn’t be crushed by 90 tons on his head.
The amazing cockroach inspired scientists to create a mini-robot that can mimic those feats of strength and agility.
The researchers hope swarms of future cockroachlike robots could be fitted with cameras, microphones and other sensors and then used in earthquakes and other disasters to help search for victims by squeezing through small cracks. The skittering robots could also let rescuers know if the pile of rubble is stable.
Cockroaches “seem to be able to go anywhere,” said University of California biology professor Robert Full, co-author of a study about the prototype cockroach robot. “I think they’re really disgusting and really revolting, but they always tell us something new.”
The study was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The palm-size prototype, called the Compressible Robot with Articulated Mechanisms, or CRAM, looks more like an armadillo and walks sort of like Charlie Chaplin when it’s compressed. It’s about 20 times the size of the cockroach that inspired it. And it’s simple and cheap.
Co-author Kaushik Jayaram, a Harvard robotics researcher, said the most difficult part was the design, but after that he used off-the-shelf electronics and motors, cardboard, polyester and some knowledge of origami. He could probably put one together in about half an hour, he estimated.
All told, the prototype probably cost less than $100, Jayaram said. He figures if mass produced, with sensors and other equipment added on, the robots could eventually cost less than $10 apiece.
Still, the robot designers have no love for the bug that inspired them. “I’m still creeped out by them,” Jayaram said.
