Rise of the Robo-roach

By Laura Udakis

It’s said everything has its use in life. So whilst you may think the world would be better off without cockroaches scuttling around the kitchen, scientists might beg to differ. According to Cambridge zoologists, the cockroach’s talent for scaling walls and ceilings could prove useful in engineering robots with expert climbing skills.

So exactly how do these critters manage to dodge the dishcloth so effectively? Well, cockroaches have two tiny, soft pads on each of their six feet - a "pulling pad" at the front and a "pushing pad" at the back. The pulling pad allows the cockroach’s feet to adhere surfaces and the pushing pad lets them detach.

Until now, scientists have struggled to understand quite how these pads allow the insects to run up walls, but Walter Federle and Christofer Clemente from the University of Cambridge were up to the task. They have shown that when going uphill, cockroaches use the pulling pads on their front feet and the pushing pads on their hind feet. The forces are reversed when climbing downhill. The combination of forces firstly stops the cockroach from slipping and secondly enables it to move in multiple directions.

The roach uses a single muscle to alternate between the two pads, so that it can change direction super speedily - thereby revealing the secret of its scuttling success.

Now then, what about these robo-roaches? Bio-robots are engineered after studying insects with adhesive feet, such as spiders. Whilst current prototypes normally have no problem attaching themselves to surfaces, they often have limited manoeuvrability, as the feet are designed to pull rather than push. Climbing up a wall, for example, is often straightforward, yet climbing down again is a whole lot more problematic.

The cockroaches in the Cambridge lab are expected to shed light on this mechanical conundrum, meaning in the future we could be seeing giant metal cockroaches giving the real ones - quite literally - a run for their money.