Cockroach robots get their team spirit

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have worked on VelociRoACH robots for over 10 years, trying to make them look like real-life insects. Recently, the main drawback of the devices has been eliminated.

The fact is that, like real-life cockroaches, VelociRoACH robots sometimes fall on their backs and cannot get up. Overcoming this shortcoming required further work and initially the engineers planned to add a tail to the robot that would help it to rise, but the idea was later abandoned because the real-life cockroaches do not have any tails. Eventually, it was decided to change the VelociRoACH software to enable robots to help each other.

In addition, their shell design was changed. The new devices have a curved polycarbonate coating, resembling the structure of real-life cockroaches. There are rubber bands on the shell sides that help VelociRoACH to flip over a fellow cockroach that fell on its back. Watch how it happens in the video below.