Cybernetics…. with insects?
Just when you thought cockroaches couldn't get any harder to kill….
"The latest issue of Make Magazine volume 2 from O'Reilly publishing has an article on a cockroach controlled robot. Roboticist Garnet Hertz has mounted a Giant Madagascan Hissing Cockroach that drives a small mobile robot around by walking on top of a Kensington trackball. There is a row of proximity sensor triggered LED's that shine light in the roach's eyes, making him steer the robot since roaches instinctively avoid light. Garnet's web page 'Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine' details the project with several images of the roach in action. Debugging the project is inherently impossible."
What's next? Bumblebees with laser guns instead of stingers? Rats armed with high-grade explosives?
Oh, and 10 points for really bad puns.