At a UC Berkeley laboratory, engineers are building cockroach-like robots with a noble purpose ”” search and rescue.
Smaller than the palm of a hand and weighing an ounce, the robots are fast, nimble, and equipped with microphones and thermostats to detect sound and heat.
“Imagine there’s a warehouse that’s collapsed,” said Ronald Fearing, the director of UC Berkeley’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab, which developed the VelociRoach robot. “You can send in hundreds of these robots, and if there’s an opening, they can get through or get close to certain areas to notify rescuers they’ve found a survivor.”