Not only roaches, but geckos and the robot DASH can rapidly reverse direction when encountering a ledge. Photo Credit Jean-Michel Mongeau, Ardian Jusufi and Pauline Jennings. Courtesy of PolyPEDAL Lab UC Berkeley.
An American cockroach under a ledge. Photo by Jean-Michel Mongeau and Pauline Jennings, courtesy of PolyPEDAL Lab, UC Berkeley. New cockroach behavior discovered by University of California, Berkeley, biologists secures the insect's reputation as one of nature's top escape artists, able to skitter away and disappear from sight before any human can swat it. In addition to its lightning speed, quick maneuvers and ability to squeeze through the tiniest cracks, the cockroach also can flip under a ledge and disappear in the blink of an eye, the researchers found. It does this by grabbing the edge with grappling hook-like claws on its back legs and swinging like a pendulum 180 degrees to land firmly underneath, upside down. Always eager to mimic animal behaviors in robots, the researchers teamed up with UC Berkeley robotics experts to recreate the behavior in a six-legged robot by adding Velcro strips. Disappearing cockroaches led UC Berkeley biologists to a clever stealth behavior that geckos also exhibit.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
