While watching my two little dogs run around our house, it struck me that a feature that distinguishes living from non-living entities is the apparent effortlessness with which living ones navigate the world. Imagine how difficult it would be to build a robot that could navigate the world so effortlessly. To make the comparison a bit simpler, imagine how difficult it would be to build a robotic cockroach.
When I asked ChatGPT whether anyone has built a robotic cockroach, it came up with these examples. (I haven't checked to see whether these are real projects.) - DASH: The Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod (DASH) robot, developed at the University of California, Berkeley, was inspired by the rapid locomotion of cockroaches. It has six legs and can move quickly on various terrains using a simple control mechanism. - Harvard RoboBee: Although not specifically modeled after a cockroach, the Harvard RoboBee project aims to develop small, insect-like robots. These tiny flying robots are inspired by the mechanics and flight capabilities of insects and demonstrate similar agility and maneuverability. - iSprawl: The iSprawl robot, developed at the University of California, Berkeley, was inspired by cockroaches' ability to squeeze through small spaces. It uses a compliant body design and six legs to navigate tight and cluttered environments. - VelociRoACH: Developed at the University of California, Berkeley, the VelociRoACH is a fast-running robot designed to mimic the high-speed locomotion of cockroaches. It utilizes a legged design and has demonstrated impressive speed and agility. These mainly explore locomotion. Besides locomotion, cockroaches notice when someone enters an area where they are exposed. They quickly scuttle off to some hiding place. How do they sense the presence of a new being? How do they know where the hiding places are? How do they know how to move in the right direction? How do they know how to avoid small obstacles and fires? Etc. One can argue that these capabilities are hard-wired in. But that doesn't make it any easier. These are still capabilities they have, that would be a challenge to build. I became amazed at how well-connected living entities are to their environments. They quickly and easily extract and use information from their environment that is important to their survival. Man-made robots have nowhere near that level of embeddedness and environmental integration. Was it Rodney Brooks who said that we should build that sort of connectedness before worrying about building intelligence into our robots? Today that struck me as an important insight. -- Russ Abbott Professor Emeritus, Computer Science California State University, Los Angeles
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