KSL.com
SAN DIEGO — Researchers and students from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, under the leadership of Alper Bozkurt, have been working on making tiny robots that can easily be maneuvered to creep, leap and crawl in rough, out of the way, inconspicuous spaces. The tiny robots needed to be about the size of a quarter dollar coin.
Bozkurt asked why not use cockroaches instead of robots, it’s been done before. Who knew science could be this much fun?
Bozkurt and his students enlisted Madagascar hissing cockroaches. The cockroach’s size is made to order. It is about the size of a person’s thumb from the tip to the first joint. The researchers hooked up a tiny microchip backpack to the insect with minuscule wires to both antennae and to a sensory organ called the cerci. The cerci is on the underside of the insect. It allows a cockroach to sense air movement from behind it. Its purpose is to allow it to detect and flee from predators.
Full story: Scientists create remote control robo-roach for rescue operations