Cockroach-inspired robot squeezes into rescue missions

Created by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, the durable robot can also withstand a load of around 60kg, which is approximately one million times its own weight. The study is described Science Robotics.

"Most of the robots at this particular small scale are very fragile. If you step on them, you pretty much destroy the robot," said Liwei Lin, a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley and senior author of a new study that describes the robot. "We found that if we put weight on our robot, it still more or less functions."

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According to UC Berkeley, small, durable robots like these could assist search and rescue missions by getting into places where dogs or humans can't fit, or where it may be too dangerous for them to go.

"For example, if an earthquake happens, it's very hard for the big machines, or the big dogs, to find life underneath debris, so that's why we need a small-sized robot that is agile and robust," said Yichuan Wu, first author of the paper, who completed the work as a graduate student in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley.