No matter how fancy and complicated we make robots, nature always has us beat. Is there anything more capable, more efficient, and more utterly indestructible than a cockroach? Of course not. Not yet, anyway. UC Berkeley's Biomimetic Millisystems Lab is trying to harness all the cleverness of birds and insects to create an entirely new generation of little robots with insect-like capabilities, and one of their most recent creations is called "Octoroach." OCTOROACH!
Octoroach has eight compliant legs and is small enough and light enough to rest comfortably on your palm. Batteries, sensors, and navigation are all completely integrated. Eventually, Octoroach and robots like it are destined for the military, to provide that last 100 meters of vital close-up surveillance. And if 100 meters ends up being too far, you can just drop off your robo-roaches using robo-birds like this one:
This is BOLT, which stands for "Bipedal Ornithopter for Locomotion Transitioning." It's got a pair of little legs under its wings, and it can skitter around on the ground and over obstacles, saving energy by not having to fly unless it has to. Berkeley is also working on a second ornithopter called iBird, which is capable of flying towards a reflective target completely autonomously.
Quite amazing, right? we read it at IEEE spectrum
