Robots to Rid Us of Cockroaches? 383
unassimilatible writes "It behaves like a cockroach. It smells like a cockroach. It is accepted by other cockroaches. But it is not a cockroach. It is a robot and scientists say its invention is a breakthrough in mankind's struggle to control the animal kingdom. The Sunday Times is reporting on a cool form of robotics, impersonating (inanimalnating?) animals. Leurre is a project on building and controlling mixed societies composed of animals and artificial agents. Within a decade, its inventors believe, it will be leading the unwanted pests out of dark kitchen corners, to where they can be eliminated. Additionally, they say they will soon be using robots to stop sheep jumping off cliffs and to encourage chickens to take exercise. Schematics, tools, and pictures here. Apparently, cockroaches do not wear tinfoil hats, as they are not smart enough to be suspicious of box-shaped circuit boards with an antennae sticking out."
The Mighty Drosophila Robot? (Score:5, Funny)
I would like to see a little drosophila robot lead all of the confounded fruit flies out of my kitchen and into the wild! (although I'm not sure where they'll put the batteries for that one)
If I could control the little robot, I might be tempted to send them right down the drain into my neighbour's place!
I see this as an excellent way to control animals, keep them off of roads and away from harm, but if I have to buy a robot dog to control my real dog, I might just buy a robot dog and leave it at that!
Re:The Mighty Drosophila Robot? (Score:5, Informative)
Thanks! (Score:2)
I'm going to get that jar going right now!
Never thought of that... and yet CHEAPER than a robot!
Re:Thanks! (Score:4, Interesting)
I was called out of town to a funeral unexpectedly last summer and left a whole bunch of fruit out (it was the last thing that crossed my mind). When I returned home, I literally had CLOUDS of fruit flies in my apartment. I put a few of those scattered around, and within a few days they were all gone. I had to take the glass outside to release them, but at least they weren't in my house anymore.
Re:Thanks! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Thanks! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Thanks! (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, but you catch more flies with honey... :)
Re:The Mighty Drosophila Robot? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Mighty Drosophila Robot? (Score:4, Interesting)
Instead of poking holes into a perfectly good lid, why don't you lay thin wires across the opening of the jar and run a small current across it. That way, once they try to enter the jar, they get zapped!
It works! I have a fly swatter that has metal wires in place of the swatter which works the same way.
Same principle, but on a jar. The bonus is that every time a fly lands, you are treated to a sound and light show!
spawning fruit flies (Score:2)
Re:The Mighty Drosophila Robot? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The Mighty Drosophila Robot? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Mighty Drosophila Robot? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The Mighty Drosophila Robot? (Score:3, Funny)
Coolest technology ever - you/Terminator vs pests (Score:5, Interesting)
Then we realized that if it was remotely controllable via wireless connection from your computer, with a camera built in, you could virtually fight the fire ants yourself. Instant coolest video game around.
BUT! What if you had a LAN party, and you and friends (or competitors, whatever) had a whole squad or platoon of these guys in the fire ant mound?
If someone does this, they will get filthy rich. (If you do it, I'd like a little credit for the idea, and maybe a tiny %, or maybe a job there. 8^)
The robots can look and work any way you want, so long as on the screen they look and respond like the character you choose (Terminator, Werewolf, Atom Ant, whatever), and they actually kill the ants.
And, of course, if you just wanted the robot to do the work, the computer could run the program for you.
You could use this for any sort of pest - ants, roaches, termites, mice, spiders, snakes, rats, weiner dogs, smug cats, drug dealers, you name it.
I haven't found a new video game I really, really like in well over 10 years, but I would buy Fire Ant Terminator in a heartbeat! And I'd think really hard about springing for the "Vicious Stray Animal Bot", too.
But then... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But then... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:But then... (Score:2)
Re:But then... (Score:2)
Project Dark Skies.
Re:But then... (Score:2)
Re:But then... (Score:5, Funny)
Sheesh, that's a silly question...Why, the governor of California, of course...
Re:But then... (Score:5, Funny)
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
-Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
Re:But then... (Score:2)
John Connor.
Re:But then... (Score:2)
No tinfoil-hats for cockroaches? (Score:5, Funny)
New market opportunity:
You forgot... (Score:4, Funny)
and then
8. Lobby Congress to pass legislation granting a legal tinfoil-hat monopoly to prevent piracy of copyrighted hat design
9. Sue cockroaches who buy their tinfoil from "bootleg" foil distributors in Hong Kong or over the internet
10. ???
Yeah....... (Score:5, Funny)
no.
score one for mother nature.
Obviously we need to build better bombs (Score:2)
Re:Yeah....... (Score:2)
Re:Yeah....... (Score:2)
That's how government would probably fix a problem like this. Don't eliminate the problem, eliminate the ones complaining about the problem.
Re:Yeah....... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yeah....... (Score:5, Funny)
The cockroaches stood on a hill
Looking out over the ruins of a once great civilization
Each with the same thought in his little mind
"Damn, they sure made good chocolate chip cookies."
--Arthur Clayton Crafsee
KFG
Cockroaches and Microwave Ovens (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, one day the microwave stopped working. This was a blow to these poor popcorn-fed students. Since they knew what Ohm's Law was and could identify a capacitor from a resistor, they decided to open the microwave up and fix it themselves.
They were not prepared for what they saw: All the
Robot Fight Club (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Robot Fight Club (Score:3, Funny)
A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
The second rule of Robot Fight Club is:
A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
The third rule of Robot Fight Club is:
A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
The fourth rule of Robot Fight CLub is:
A robot must protect its own existence, as lon
no, no, no (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Robot Fight Club (Score:2)
At first I thought -Who will think of the roaches? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:At first I thought -Who will think of the roach (Score:2)
Y'know, that would explain a lot about this administration....
They need robots for this? (Score:5, Funny)
Or a... fence.
Re:They need robots for this? (Score:2)
Re:They need robots for this? (Score:3)
Re:They need robots for this? (Score:3, Interesting)
The First Terminator (Score:5, Funny)
Human models should be available in a few decades.
Re:The First Terminator (Score:3, Funny)
Poor Chickens (Score:5, Funny)
...Please leave the chickens alone, they have enough of a problem running from the farmer when his wife is out of town.
Re:Poor Chickens (Score:2)
I'll really be impressed... (Score:5, Funny)
No fan of cockroaches (Score:4, Insightful)
I do like the fact this can be used to do things like teach chickens to exercise (I hate my KFC being fatty), and sheep to jump off cliffs (do they do this? Shouldn't we get them like psycho-therapy?)
Re:No fan of cockroaches (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No fan of cockroaches (Score:2)
Re:No fan of cockroaches (Score:3, Informative)
Here in New York, despite regular visits by the exterminator, I still have cockroaches now and then. Sure, most of them are tiny and probably never grow to adulthood. I only see a few adult ones a year, but they are there.
Re:No fan of cockroaches (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No fan of cockroaches (Score:3, Insightful)
Cockinator (Score:2)
This isn't exactly... (Score:4, Interesting)
Bottom of the main page: "Last Update 20/10/03 14:37"
My big point, though; the site provides specs, images, everything one might need to actually build one; I wonder how complicated it would be..
But soon... (Score:5, Insightful)
In other words, the smart ones.
Great idea, guys.
Re:But soon... (Score:2)
Almost there... (Score:2)
They almost got it right, but instead of remaining "stationary", the robot should wait until alot of cockroaches are around it, then use its "FRICKEN LASERS" at a reasonable level, in relation to roaches
Re:But soon... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:But soon... (Score:3, Insightful)
For that matter, some Caterpillars have fake eyes [state.tx.us] to make them look bigger and scare off predators. Some frogs self-inflate for (presumably) the same reason. Surely it should be easier for the predator to evolve the ability to recognize an inflated frog than for the frog to evolve to inflate itself? But apparently not.
At that point... (Score:3, Funny)
While all of this is playing out, I'll just be searching for a very large shoe.
Arms race against evolution (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Arms race against evolution (Score:2)
Re:Arms race against evolution (Score:2)
Tell me when they have a box elder bug version (Score:2)
Coming soon to a supermarket near you (Score:3, Funny)
Well.... (Score:2)
Sheep (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sheep (Score:2)
Yeah, I was wondering if I was the only one thinking that might have been a veiled insult to us USians.
Yeah yeah yeah... (Score:2)
Oh No!! (Score:3, Funny)
Oh God! I just stomped on my $1,200 Robo-Roach!! Arrrgggghhh!
Austrailia (Score:2)
Speaking as a cockroach, (Score:2, Interesting)
"I for one welcome our transistor festoned friends".
Seriously, another use for Duct tape.
A/K/A/ household hint #444.
If you lay duct tape around the perimeter of a room before retiring, any cockroaches who attempt to cross will become attached to the aDuct tape and are easily disposed of in the morning.
Do those cubic robots remind you of anything? (Score:4, Funny)
Do Androids... (Score:2)
Sorry! (Score:2)
So... (Score:2)
Addressing the symptom not the problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is simply a robotic equivilant of pesticides... you are eliminating a symptom of the problem (Cockroaches) instead of eliminating the actual problem (Food waste, dirty houses).
If you developed little robots to pick up all all those food crumbs and eliminate any spills and puddles, the Cockroaches won't prosper.
I guess in older houses they might still eat wall the wallpaper...
This won't save us from roaches (Score:4, Insightful)
Interestingly while the robots may be scented with roach smell, this puts the manufacturer in the position of a chemical/behavioural arms race with roaches to produce acceptable robots. My money is on the roaches, since they have been around for several hundred million years.
Hoihoi-san (Score:2, Insightful)
My first thought
What we want is bug-killing robots that look like cute little dolls [tenshi-no-tsubasa.com]. Now that's marketable.
Asimov predicted this... (Score:2)
That's not much of a spoiler, BTW, so you have no excuse not to track the story down and read it.
AMAZING COCKROACH FACTS (Score:2)
http://www.thaibugs.com/Articles/roach.html
It also deals with the use of robots
The Martin Niemöller Perspective (Score:4, Funny)
and I did not speak out
because I was not a cockroach.
Then they came for the sheep
and I did not speak out
because I was not a sheep.
Then they came for the chickens
and I did not speak out
because I was not a chicken.
Then they came for the humans
and there were only robots left
and none would speak out for me.
The perfect Roach Bot (Score:2)
Reese Roach: The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new. They look roach. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait 'til he moved on you before I could zero him.
Sarah Roach: Hey, I'm not stupid, y'know. They can't build anything like that yet.
Reese Roach: No. Not yet. Not for about forty years.
Already in Japanese Anime (Score:3, Interesting)
Ichigeki Sacchuu!! Hoihoi-san (a.k.a. One-Shot Bug Killer!! Interceptor Doll Hoihoi-san)
http://www.tenshi-no-tsubasa.com/ [tenshi-no-tsubasa.com]
--Chris ^_^
unused idea for mosquito control (Score:4, Interesting)
heh.
We keep trying to use chemicals to control animals. The potential for genetic manipulation is much more powerful. Animals rapidly evolve resistance to things that kill them outright. But since male mosquitos don't bite (only females) and breeding and releasing male mosquitos doesn't pose a health risk imagine if we bread mosquitos for the following characteristics and then only released the male varieties (sex could be altered by viruses, as currently happens in nature)
1. Mosquitos which prefer nectar to animals. Couple this with poorer versions of the genes which sense CO2 and heat.
2. Breed mosquitos to avoid the human scent. You could do this by exposing mosquitos to a scent with a food source, and killing those which migrated towards it first. Instead of selling mosquito repellants, breed mosquitos which are naturally repeled by people.
3. Perfect viruses which alter the mosquito's sex, making all mosquitos male. It could be distributed in the same way that BT toxin is currently used, and could be made not to jump species barriers. ( I know of worries with calissa virus etc. but those were mammals. These are cold blooded insects )
4. Use devices to interfere with mosquito's mating communication - chemicals, sounds, etc. Like those bug zappers. They can be targeted to mosquitos sufficiently that they wouldn't hurt people.
Problem: The wrong pest? (Score:5, Funny)
One possibility is to target mice or rats. They're prolific, but being mammals are less so than roaches. Unfortunately, they're pretty damn smart and might be able to foil or avoid these robots (finding particular crannies in the wall it can't reach, for example). Also, from a public relations standpoint, a robot that snuffs fur covered rodents would probably spill enough blood to freak out a homeowner. And if the thing botched the job and only maimed the little guys, you'd be stuck with a thousand grossed out homeowners complaining about mice with partially amputated limbs crawling across their new carpet.
Ironically, one of the best choices might be the pests that act more like robots than any other: ants. The tough part of taking them out is tracing them all the way back to the nest, which might be inside a wall or foundation crack. A robot that could track them inside walls, etc. and then do a quick one shot of poison spray to get the queen would be perfect. Ants may be as prolific as roaches, but the queen is the only fertile one in the nest. Get her and it's "game over, man!"
My three Q's (Score:3)
Now, three questions:
1) How will the "Terminator Roach" deal with the vertical dimension (the shaft) and with water and human dejects (the sewer) ?
2) How will a little robot, entering into those breeding grounds and coming out with a bunch of his "friends", help me get rid of cockroaches ? It's like, "Hi, I'm back, I look who I brought: This is Joe, this Ramon, this Betsy, this is Dotty and these are their 252 cousins !"
3) Who did such a bad job with pest control for those guys, that made their research goals what they are ? (don't tell me it's a stepping stone to making robot-chickens)
robots to rid us of geeks and nerds (Score:2, Funny)
They could control the nerd/geek kingdom! Oh, no! where is my tinfoil hat when I need it!
you know (Score:2)
That was Phillip K. Dick's Idea (Score:2, Insightful)
inanimalnating? (Score:3, Funny)
Thank You
Usage Enforcement Agency,
Large Brutish Person Division
The things you learn on /. (Score:3, Funny)
Is this a big problem? I've never heard of it but there could be a lot of reasons for sheep cliff divers. They get drunk with their hoodlum buddies and start showing off, I'm not sure. But when you think about it there aren't a lot of sheep singing It's A Wonderful Life. You stand around eating grass all day, constantly on the alert for predators, then once a year you get man handled by some smelly guy who shaves all your fur off. That's all fine and dandy, then one day you get to go for a ride in the trailer that ends up at the slaughter house and you're nothing but mutton chops after that, baby.
Yeah, I think I'd opt for the cliff myself. At least you've got a chance that way. You could wash up on the island of lost sheep. But I guess that's another movie.
Simple, cheap, virus-like roach control recipe (Score:5, Informative)
1. Buy a bottle of boric acid powder from your local pharmacy (costs about $2 USD).
2. Mix equal parts of the above with sugar, and add a little water to bind them together into a thick paste. Ideally, it should be thick enough to form balls that can be easily cleaned up later if necessary.
3. Place the paste in dark places where you think roaches congregate. Wait 1-2 weeks for all roaches to disappear.
The boric acid is poisonous to both ants and roaches. The beauty of this poison is that the roaches succumb in their hiding places, where other roaches will eat the remains and also subsequently die. It spreads like a virus!
My mom has used this effectively in Western Africa, and it has worked for me in the Deep South.
Boric acid is, from what I've heard, much less toxic to people and pets than the alternative sprays that must be reapplied every few months.
Re:imanimalating? (Score:2)
Re:"And then the Cyborgs came." (Score:5, Funny)
I just realized how many movies and books could be greatly improved by adding that line to the end narration.
Re:"And then the Cyborgs came." (Score:2)
Re:why dominate the animal kingdom (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cockroach eater (Score:2)
Solomon