They’re pests that many people dread entering their houses, but cockroaches have been used as the inspiration for a new robot .
Researchers from the University of California, Berekely have developed a tiny robot that measures just 3cm by 1.5cm, and weighs less than 0.07 grams.
The bot was described yesterday in the journal Science Robotics, with collaboration from Yichuan Wu, a China-based professor.
Despite weighing just 0.07 grams, the robotic cockroach can comfortably cope with being stamped by a 60kg adult – more than one million times heavier than the robot!
Professor Liwei Lin, who led the study, said: “People may have experienced that, if you step on the cockroach, you may have to grind it up a little bit, otherwise the cockroach may still survive and run away.
“Somebody stepping on our robot is applying an extraordinarily large weight, but [the robot] still works, it still functions. So, in that particular sense, it's very similar to a cockroach."
To develop the robot, the researchers used of flexible Piezoelectric materials – special materials that expand or contract when an electric voltage is applied.
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