Compact Spy: Russian Scientists Create Roach-Size Surveillance Robot
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Russian scientists at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University recently revealed a cockroach-like robot that is capable of spying on foes in hard to access locations, and even find people trapped under rubble. While the name of the company that ordered the robot has not been revealed, its requirements were to, in just a few months, create a robot that looks and acts like a live cockroach. According to Aleksey Belousov, the project’s head engineer, this was certainly a challenging project for the scientists, as balancing the parameters was no easy task.
Belousov explained that scientists at UC Berkeley have been working on their own roach-sized robot for the last four years. They, however, were not planning on making it look like an insect, and for this reason it operates at higher speeds that its Russian counterpart. Moreover, the Russians had to develop everything from scratch. For instance, there is an Australian company producing gearing for legs, but a single unit is priced at round $9000, while the entire budget for this project was $22,500, according to the university’s leading engineer, Danil Borchevskin.
The miniature robot is equipped with lightweight sensors and gropers that allow it to move about without colliding with objects in its path. The imitation-roach measures 10cm in length and can move with speeds of up to 30cm a second – about a third of the speed a real life cockroach is capable of. The microbot has a battery life of twenty minutes and can deliver a payload weighing up to ten grammes. These characteristics are stirring interest in various defence industries, as attaching a miniature camera would allow the robot to spy in hard to reach places or highly secured areas. Let’s hope that the Russian scientists prepared an adequate armour to cover the robot’s body, to ensure that the $22,500 project is not suddenly crushed.
