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It's funny. Laugh. Science Technology

Vehicle for Cockroaches 198

Posted by Zonk from the wait-till-you-see-the-spoiler dept.
William Robinson wrote to mention an entertaining Wired news article about vehicle meant for cockroaches. From the article: "Hertz has constructed a three-wheeled robotic vehicle that lets a Madagascan hissing cockroach navigate a room while perched atop a ping-pong ball. The ball works like a computer mouse's track ball. Where the roach moves on the ball, the vehicle moves in the room. Sensors on the bot can tell when it's going to hit something. It also has a semi-circle of LED lights facing the roach, so when it's about to hit an obstacle an LED will shine on the creature from the direction of the barrier, hopefully causing it to run in the other direction."
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Vehicle for Cockroaches More

Vehicle for Cockroaches

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  • Duperlicious! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Seumas ( 6865 ) * on Saturday July 02, 2005 @11:46PM (#12972202)
    Oh wow! This is just like the one reported by G4TV/TechTV, Gizmodo, Engadget, every other blog and website and news outlet AND AND SLASHDOT (Cockroach-Controlled Robot) [slashdot.org]... SIX WEEKS AGO.

    Way to stay on top of things, Wired and Slashdot!

    Submitter... Editor... is it that fucking hard to punch the word "roach" into the search field before posting? I mean, the duplicate article is the FIRST FUCKING RESULT.
    • I can understand your outrage, especially since you're a subscriber. At least people like me aren't PAYING for dupes. Moreover, this is one of the reasons I don't subscribe to /.

      It's like when I look through the TV listings and see that HBO is running "Earnest Goes To Camp" or some other really bad 20-year-old movie. I just have to shake my head and wonder if people are mad that they're actually paying for garbage.

      (For the record, I get all of the HBOs and Showtimes included in my rent.)
      • You must feel pissed that you pay more for rent just to get those shows then. It's not even an option for you to not pay for it.

        Poor fool.

        • Since I don't have the option of paying less, I'm not paying more for it. I'm paying a fixed amount for the amenities I use. The rest is leftovers. Just like I don't take advantage of the staff masseuse, but that doesn't mean my rent goes down. And food costs the same whether I use the restaurant's dining room or have it delivered.

          Just like you don't have the option of getting a lower credit card rate because you don't call customer service every day. Or like you have pay property taxes, either direct

    • Re:Duperlicious! (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by stuuf ( 587464 )
      Point one: There's something beautifully ironic about someone duplicating the word "AND" in a comment bitching about a duplicate story (I know, the it's hard to remember what you typed before the <a href=...., but it's still amusing)
      Point two: STFU! I think moderators should agree to start modding these posts as off-topic, unless the post has some relevant information besides a complaint. And give the editors a break. It's a miracle the site is still operating, let alone somewhat useful given the traffic
      • And give the editors a break. It's a miracle the site is still operating, let alone somewhat useful given the traffic/abuse they get currently.

        Did you know that they actually get money from operating this site? And they don't even bother to read it :) This dupe is from a long ago compared to most of them, which usually occur with a day or two interval...

    • Re:Duperlicious! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ryanov ( 193048 )
      Zonk is really on top of his game lately.
    • I, for one, am glad they duped this one. I missed it 6 weeks ago and now I have it right here on the front page.

      Dupes in the same day I could see complaining about. Same week maybe worth a mention.

      But 6 weeks ago? You're just digging for osmething to bitch about.

  • Only two things will survive nuclear war (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Cockroaches and dupes.

    Cockroach-Controlled Robot [slashdot.org]
    • Scary... I read this as Family guy was on and Peter went "Only two things can survive a nuclear holocaust... cockroaches and twinkies". For a moment I thought he was reading to me...
    • I don't know about the dupes, possibly. But the classical definition usually names Cockroaches, Coyotes, and White Tailed Deer. It never has, and probably never will, include humans.

      And yes, the story is a dupe. I read it in Wired close to 2 months ago.

      --
      Cheers, Gene
      "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
      soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
      -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
      99.35% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly.

  • Anyone else... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Obiwan Kenobi ( 32807 ) <evan@@@misterorange...com> on Saturday July 02, 2005 @11:47PM (#12972208) Homepage
    Am I the only guy who read the blurb and couldn't help but blurt out: "What the fuck is Hertz doing working on a rent-a-ping-pong-ball...for roaches?!"

    It was like living in a Ziggy strip, I swear to God.

  • And they say... (Score:5, Funny)

    by GeekZilla ( 398185 ) on Saturday July 02, 2005 @11:48PM (#12972211)

    ...Innovation is slowing down. HA! Take that Jonathan Huebner!

    first post?

  • If you are going to duplicate articles: (Score:4, Funny)

    by Glowing Fish ( 155236 ) on Saturday July 02, 2005 @11:48PM (#12972212) Homepage
    If you are going to duplicate articles, duplicate articles, about, say, finding water on the moon, or Debian releasing a stable distro, or, people find a cure for cancer, or SCO finally going belly up.

    Why subject us to the thought of ROBOTICALLY AMPLIFIED COCKROACHES twice? Or is this just for everyone whose mind blanked this out the first time?

  • Wow.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by raydobbs ( 99133 ) on Saturday July 02, 2005 @11:49PM (#12972214) Homepage Journal
    While I definately have to geek a little on this and applaud the work of people to create micro vehicles... I have to wonder the usefulness of cockroaches... I mean, isn't there enough things to research - without having to break out the need for transportation for house vermin?

    But from the purely technical aspects of it - it's amazing... a trackball driven vehicle, designed for cockroaches. A for creativity.... C- for relativity...

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @12:05AM (#12972276)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • I built a robot when I was in 10th grade that did essentially the same thing as this one does, that is, move around while avoiding walls. It took me a few hours and $5 worth of electronics.
      • Leaving morality aside, of course...

      • Re:Wow.... (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I think your missing the point. While we are good at developing machinery and electronics, programming AI into the system has always been the problem.

        The solution: Borrow an existing solution from nature. All you need is an insect, rat, or reptile to interface with the device and for them to obtain feedback with sensors it would closely be accustomed too.

        Just imagine for a moment using a pigeon mounted inside a scramjet with the only purpose to get an item from point A to B in a battle field autonomously.
      • Just imagine for a moment using a pigeon mounted inside a scramjet with the only purpose to get an item from point A to B in a battle field autonomously.

        Behaviorist B.F. Skinner imagined it before any of us, way back in the 1940s [psychcentral.com]

      • Re:Wow.... (Score:2, Funny)

        by cvas ( 150274 )
        A cautionary tale for your animal-waged war...

        we3 [wikipedia.org]

    • C- for relativity for sure! It doesn't get even close to relativistic speeds! And it certainly doesn't have enough mass for general relativity!





      disclaimer: yes, I know that this comment was not technically correct. There are always plenty of reference frames in which it is moving at relavistic speeds, and general relativity deals with all gravity, not just high mass. its a joke. deal with it.
    • According to the article, the original intent of the device was to prove that a cockroach would be able to control the machine more effectively then a computer chip, in a school project.

      In the end, it proved not to be true. While the cockroach would often respond correctly to the lights he put into the device, it would not always do so. And sometimes the cockroach would just "spaz out" and run in circles for awhile. Other times it control the robot perfectly for a while, then decide to ram it into th

      • Re:Wow.... (Score:2, Funny)

        by GeekZilla ( 398185 )

        And sometimes ... would just "spaz out" and run in circles for awhile.

        You just described my 2-year old son.

        --

        It's not the PC's I hate, it's...oh wait-yes it is.

    • I mean, isn't there enough things to research - without having to break out the need for transportation for house vermin?

      Considering the number of accidents happening on the roads nowadays, maybe they're submitted to find a new DDT substitute. Pack a cartload of all those damn roaches in a nice Ferrari, all drunk, and see them smash at 180Mph on the guard rails! The pure violence of the scene would compensate for the costs of a full scale research on the balistics of roaches intestines!

      Which makes me

    • It's good during the development stages, as the bugs become features. "Oh damn I flipped the wrong bit in the wall detection algorithm" becomes "Yes!!!, another one of the bastards squashed against the wall".
  • There's an article about this in the most recent issue of "Make" magazine, the magazine put out by O'Reilly. It has a neat picture of the cockroach up close with the velcro that's cemented to its back. Very neat.
    • Because that would be awesome. Just imagine. I could finally fulfill my lifelong dream of unleashing a freakin army of cockroach piloted helicopters with freakin lasers. One billion dollars never seemed so close and so far away than it does right now.

  • Roaches (Score:5, Funny)

    by DrugCheese ( 266151 ) on Saturday July 02, 2005 @11:52PM (#12972228)
    They're gonna be the ones surviving the nuclear wars anyway, so might as well teach them how to use the technology while we can.

  • I am not an exterminator (IANAE) but... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Krankheit ( 830769 ) on Saturday July 02, 2005 @11:52PM (#12972231)
    What happens when this new cockroach vehicle becomes more popular? What if I find cockroach hummers and cockroach minivans? And, by any chance, could these be modified hotwheels cars? I am afraid this will make the job of exterminators much harder.
  • Between continued dupe-a-mania and the thought going through my mind of the bugs from Joe's Apartment getting their own pimped out rides, I think I've had enough for one night. Good night /.
  • Vehicle for Cockroaches? Subject line says it all.

  • Great, this will help the little buggers safely evade the other robots sent to terminate them. [slashdot.org]

    Yet my Open Source Flea Circus Java Spyware Toolbar Firefox Extension article submission was rejected AGAIN!?

  • Very smart (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 03, 2005 @12:02AM (#12972268)
    If they can just get them to use cellphones while they drive it might be a great way to wipe out cockroaches. Darwin would be proud.
  • Let's teach some insects how to OPERATE MECHA! That seems like a good plan. Once we have the driving the little ones around we'll go ahead and give them the three story tall robots with weapons.

    As if fighting off the cockroach hoardes isn't going to be tough enough in the future.
  • if the robots ever got caught in those sticky traps.

    I'd have the terrible urge to smash his invention with a rolled up newspaper.

  • Its obligatory (Score:3, Funny)

    by jolande ( 852630 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @12:08AM (#12972286)
    Well, I for one welcome our newly mobilized Cockroach overlords
  • "when it's about to hit an obstacle an LED will shine on the creature from the direction of the barrier, hopefully causing it to run in the other direction."

    In other words, the perfect antidote to politicians, and GuardedNet executives.
  • Who says innovation is dead when such wonderful inventions like the cockroach car are being created by the world's best and brightest....

  • Innovation (Score:1, Redundant)

    by sholden ( 12227 )
    And people dare claim innovation is getting slower.

  • Great... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ShatteredDream ( 636520 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @12:23AM (#12972332) Homepage
    Next thing you know, we'll be giving squad cars to the spiders to keep those speed demon roaches in check...

  • Violating the Prime Directive (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NetSettler ( 460623 ) <kent-slashdot@nhplace.com> on Sunday July 03, 2005 @12:48AM (#12972385) Homepage Journal
    Animals do learn, and these are ones that are already remarkably durable. Is anyone doing this experiment asking whether this is a good idea?

    I'm actually relative serious when I say: I hope they're disposing of the test subjects afterward and not sending them back to the hive to say: "I figured out the rosetta stone to their technology. Now we'll have no trouble taking over."

    I recently re-watched the original Jurassic Park and was properly impacted by someone's remark at some point that they'd be safe from the Raptors untilt hey figured out how to turn a doorknob. It was an excellent point about intelligent creatures. I'm actually not worried a bug is going to drive a car, but I do worry that Einstein's remark "a mind one stretched by a new idea never regains its original shape" might have some applicability here if we make a regular practice of this kind of thing.

    We don't need to be artificially creating triggers that put roaches into a more advanced intellectual state ahead of their own natural evolution.

    Star Trek teaches us the Prime Directive, which says approximately: don't interfere with the evolution of lower life forms because they may not have the wisdom to use their newfound knowledge for the betterment of mankind. I say we follow that lead in this case.
    • We don't need to be artificially creating triggers that put roaches into a more advanced intellectual state ahead of their own natural evolution.

      You seem to be falling for the ID crap. Evolution itself does not exist, it is just a concept. Evolution is not some godlike entity. Therefore it can not have any purpose, like a 'god' could have. That also means there is no 'natural evolution.' Stuff just happens. What happens to one species does always influence other species in its environment. So if mankind d
  • 1. Insert generic and superfluous statement regarding dislike of dupe'd articles

    2. Make obvious reference to previous story

    3. Welcome our newly mobile cockroach overlords

    4. ????

    5. Profit!

  • But does it play... (Score:4, Funny)

    by 404notfound ( 467950 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @12:55AM (#12972401)
    ... La Cucaracha for the horn?
  • I intend to capitalize on the upcoming roach motorist boom and have started my own auto-insurance firm, dedicated to serving the needs of our squishy mobile friends.

    Accepted forms of payment are RoachPal, MasterDung Cards, and The Madagascar Express Card ("Don't leave roach droppings without it!")

    We are currently accepting new investors.

  • CONVERGENCE (Score:2, Insightful)

    by haakondahl ( 893488 )

    It also has a semi-circle of LED lights facing the roach, so when it's about to hit an obstacle an LED will shine on the creature from the direction of the barrier, hopefully causing it to run in the other direction.

    I live in Japan. My wife's car beeps when you put it into reverse. Not outside the car, mind you, where it might warn a luckless pedestrian (tm). INSIDE THE CAR ONLY. Perhaps the roach's semi-sircle of LEDs could be added to my wif's car, and we could give the roach a backing beeper.

  • How about some natural sunlight to make slashdotters move around to different areas of their mothers' basements?

  • Well... (Score:3, Funny)

    by iamdrscience ( 541136 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @01:14AM (#12972451) Homepage
    Good luck debugging this thing!

  • No brainer (Score:3, Informative)

    by natrius ( 642724 ) <niran @ n i r a n . o rg> on Sunday July 03, 2005 @01:16AM (#12972455) Homepage
    Instead of brains, the roaches have ganglia: clumps of nerve cells on various parts of their bodies.
    ...
    "It was kind of a no-brainer that (Hertz's bot) would be a piece we would include..."

    Zing!
  • This is a great step forward in re-abilitating the handicapped cockroach and enabling him to regain his place as a useful, contributing member of society!
  • Those damn things are already immortal. Now they're teaching them how to use machines. Soon they'll be able to develop their own technology and then we'll be their livestock. They'll make us cook for them, and they'll only let us eat food they've already walked on, and then we'll have to fight each other in arenas for their amusement. It's so fucking disgusting.

    That's a great idea for a new FPS right there! I hereby licence this concept under the Creative Commons licence, which I've never read but can't be
  • I guess it is an art project and not a science project but still...the bot seems to be completely superfluous as the cockroach is not even given the slightest indication that its actions are controlling the bot. The cockroach either changes direction when facing a light or not. Wooo. The idea that actions affect outcome is a much different proposition than using goal directed actions to pertain a particular outcome.

    So I'm forced to disagree with Hertz -- this system is far less interesting than a computer.
  • They dupe this article, but reject a story with pictures of Bill Gates on a waterslide.

    Sigh.

  • Not only are the little buggers going to inherit the earth.

    They're going to be driving our ping pong balls!

  • Pigeon guided missile (Score:5, Informative)

    by FleaPlus ( 6935 ) on Sunday July 03, 2005 @02:46AM (#12972698) Journal
    This reminds me a little bit of the pigeon guided missile, a project that the noted behaviorist B.F. Skinner worked on during World War II.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_guided_missile [wikipedia.org]

    During World War 2, Project Pigeon was American behaviourist B. F. Skinner's attempt to develop a pigeon-guided missile.

    The control system involved a lens at the front of the missile projecting an image of the target to a screen inside, while a pigeon trained (by operant conditioning) to recognise the target pecked at it. As long as the pecks remained in the center of the screen, the missile would fly straight, but pecks off-center would cause the screen to tilt, which would then, via a connection to the missile's flight controls, cause the missile to change course.

    Although skeptical of the idea, the National Defense Research Committee nevertheless contributed $25,000 to the research. However, Skinner's plans to use pigeons in Pelican missiles was apparently too radical for the military establishment; although he had some success with the training, he could not get his idea taken seriously.
  • Now we just need a version that works with humans, and we can really change the world.
  • Their relatively large size make them easier to work with than other types of roaches, and their tendency to hiss when they are upset lets him know if it's time to give one a break

    And we all know, of course, this is how many horror films begin, right?
  • The lines for driver's licenses at the DMV are about to get a whole lot longer. Thanks a lot!

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