Robots Assimilate Into Cockroach Society

sufijazz writes "Scientists have gotten tiny robots to not only integrate into cockroach society but also control it. 'This experiment in bug peer pressure combined entomology, robotics and the study of ways that complex and even intelligent patterns can arise from simple behavior. Animal behavior research shows that swarms working together can prosper where individuals might fail, and robotics researchers have been experimenting with simple robots that, together, act a little like a swarm.' The BBC also has a video story on this."

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Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Only the ones that didn't go to the White House

Let's get this out of the way.

[nuclearpenguins]

I, for one, welcome our new robotic insect overlords.

Re:

[sznupi]

Wait, would that mean you're a cockroach?

(hmm...as close to safely call somebody "cock" on /. as it gets?)

Re:

[blantonl]

Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these. And just imagine if they ran Linux.

Imagine recompiling a roach's kernel. Now that is pretty creepy.. or cool.

Re:

[edwardpickman]

Do they still qualify as Overlords if I can squish them under my foot like their cockroach cousins?

Squishing roaches

[CustomDesigned]

Do they still qualify as Overlords if I can squish them under my foot like their cockroach cousins?

You can squish *lots* of them, but not all of their teeming millions before they eat you alive.

Re:

[stonecypher]

You can squish *lots* of them, but not all of their teeming millions before they eat you alive.

So become a tool-using mammal [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[killmofasta]

Oh DEAR FREAKING GOD!

ok... That was FUNNY. Actually, for obligitory jokes, that was the best in weeks!

Re:

[Dusty101]

If we can now, indirectly control them, shouldn't read:

"I, for one, welcome our new insect minions"?

Re:

[foreverpuppy]

..for now.

My experience

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that people in academia that work on robotics are much like cockroaches.

Hey!! We are *NOT* a cockroach society!

[Anonymous Coward]

I resent that you characterize our society as "cockroach". Geez, just because the robots were able to assimilate and blend in --I mean, it really did look exactly like Cindy Margolis [wikipedia.org]-- how were we supposed to know that she was a robot!

And besides, the article says ... actually, I haven't read the article yet ... hang on, let me read this ... oh, umm ...

Er, never mind.

Re:

[billius]

From another article [nature.com]:

They are very kind, not aggressive and they don't bite.

Given my experience on a FIRST [usfirst.org] robotics team back in high school, robotics people aren't like that at all :p

Re:

[agent_no.82]

Would you say that "They are just a bit disgusting?"

Re:

[Grant29]

What do you mean?

--
Local Broadband Service [localbroad...ervice.com]

Re:

[GodGell]

FTA:

Dr. Halloy and his colleagues worked with roaches because their societies are simple, egalitarian and democratic, with none of the social stratification seen in some other insect societies -- no queen bees, no worker ants. "Cockroaches are not like that," Dr. Halloy said. "They live all together."

Indeed, it does not sound like our society at all.

No, not overlords

[TheMeuge]

I am not going to go to the obligatory "robotic overlords" reference, except to note that in human society, a determined and united groups of individuals have caused masses of people to perform actions that contradict their instincts, common sense, or any boundaries and taboos set by their parent societies.

One conclusion one can draw from this study, coupled with historical precedent in human societies, is that animals come evolutionary pre-programmed to join groups and be subjugated by the rules of said groups, despite better (or alternate) judgment.

Re:No, not overlords

[turing_m]

"...is that animals come evolutionary pre-programmed to join groups"

Depends on the animal. In social animals, yes. In others (e.g. tigers, bears, moose, spiders), communication will be restricted to mating rituals and that sort of thing. Those methods of communication can of course be mimicked and often are by other species (or sub-species) for their own gain. e.g. orchids and insect mating behavior, moths with "eyes" on their wings etc.

Re:

[jd]

Damn, you can't fit lions before tigers and bears because they're social. Gah! Talk about life not imitating art.

Re:

[complete loony]

Oh My!

Re:No, not overlords

[GaryOlson]

...united groups of individuals have caused masses of people to perform actions that contradict their instincts, common sense...

Why did I think of the user interface for Microsoft Office 2003 when I read that?

Because you have not seen MS Office 2007?

[someone1234]

It definitely trumps msoffice 2003 UI in uselessness.

Re:

[somersault]

Yeah, I can just imagine the robots trying to get the cockroaches to smoke - "come on.. all the cool roaches are doing it.."

Re:No, not overlords

[Kingrames]

"I am not going to go to the obligatory "robotic overlords" reference"
Good! I'm sick of that meme.

I, for one, welcome our new non-obligatory overlord referencing overlords. ...shit.

Nearly perfect

[Bearhouse]

"I, for one, welcome our new non-obligatory overlord referencing overlords....oh wait"

There, fixed that for you.

So does that mean

[evanbd]

That when the humans and the robots destroy each other in a nuclear war, it will be up to the cockroaches to continue the battle against the robot cockroaches?

Pied Piper anyone?

[cp.tar]

I wonder, if robots can actually control swarms, could we perhaps make them lead the swarms not to world domination, but to some sort of... mishap?

There's gotta be some way to get rid of them.

That is certainly a dark thought

[einhverfr]

If you remember the pied piper story, it ended with the piper leading all the children of the town away to the mountain, where it closed after them. If it can be done with pests, are you saying we should think about the possibility it can be done with children too?

Re:Pied Piper anyone?

[QuantumG]

Yes, that's what the research showed.. the cockroaches will follow the robots 60% of the time. RTFA.

More interesting, I thought, was that the researchers seemed pissed off when the journalists asked the kind of "how would you apply this?" questions that you just asked.

Re:

[cyphercell]

I like your sig, is it in the firehose?

Overheard underneath the stove

[StreetStealth]

(translated from pheromone language)

Cockroach A: "I have this theory. About our new leader."

Cockroach B: "This had better not be another one of your retarded colony conspiracies."

Cockroach A: "Well... I don't think he's cockroach. In fact, I have reason to believe he's a robot. Put here by highly intelligent beings for some bizarre purpose... Maybe to lead us all to destruction. Maybe as a test. I don't know. But have you seen him? I mean, with your own compound eyes?"

Cockroach B: "..."

Re:

[4D6963]

Damn! Where are my mod points when I need them?

There, someone gave you one, I only hope it was an Offtopic mod point you required ;-)

MOD PARENT UP

[LrdDimwit]

All the other cockroaches are doing it.

Re:

[agent_no.82]

"I have reason to believe he's a robot. Put here...to lead us all to destruction."
So he's a cylon?

Re:

[ross.w]

Yes, but does the robot cockroach know it's a robot cockroach? And is the cockroach sent to kill it really a cockroach, or just another robot?

Re:

[roman_mir]

You have created a perfect analogy, I am almost certain you have done this on purpose.

Is Bush really a human?

Re:Pied Piper anyone?

[timeOday]

the cockroaches will follow the robots 60% of the time.

My cat will follow a ball of yarn 90% of the time.

Re:

[MrNaz]

Slashdotters will make up statistics based upon wildly inaccurate supposition and blatantly false assumptions 100% of the time.

Re:

[robomon]

Yes, that's what the research showed.. the cockroaches will follow the robots 60% of the time. RTFA.

They sprayed a bunch of robots with "sex hormones" and they are surprised that some of the cockroaches followed them? It was probably a female sex hormone and the 60% that followed were male cockroaches.

Re:

[GaryOlson]

Mishap -- this is the definition of the US Congress. No, no method exists to get rid of them. They refuse to swarm in any useful organized fashion.

Re:

[Headw1nd]

Well, the thing I thought was the strangest about the article is that apparently the roaches followed the robots 60% of the time, but "The other 40 percent of the time, the robotic roaches succumbed to peer pressure and headed for the darkest place."

So, at best, we can lead the roaches to their doom three out of five times, but the remaining 40% of our attempts will inadvertently augment their swarms with indestructible biodroids.

Mulder...

[harrypelles]

"Mulder... What are we doing here?"

oblig

[AlgorithMan]

do they run linux?

Re:

[Tatisimo]

With such low capacity they must have, you'll need a beowulf cluster of those.

This...

[ale_ryu]

May be the only case in which the phrase "it's not a bug, it's a feature!" is not applicable... or is it?

Re:

[harrypelles]

Man, I wish I could mod this +100 Funny.

Re:

[nebaz]

That's only because your robotic cockroach overlord wishes so too.

Re:

[TapeCutter]

"We need to push this to it's limit. Like mammals for example."

I worked on a dairy farm for a while that had ~100 cows. At milking time the farmer would swing open the gate and walk off into the milking shed, seeing the open gate the (old) dog would trot out and round up the cows by itself. Often there wasn't much for it to do other than stroll along behind the herd because the cows also knew the drill. Not sure how the cows knew what time it was since none of them were wearing watches but they would oft

Re:

[dcollins]

"Not sure how the cows knew what time it was since none of them were wearing watches but they would often gather near the gate just before 3:00 in the afternoon and wait patiently for it to be opened."

That's easy -- their udders are full. Kind of like how you know it's time to go to the bathroom. (I've had the dog's job in a milking operation.)

Re:

[TapeCutter]

"I've had the dog's job in a milking operation."

I was hired to spend a month or so hacking down thistles[sic] in the pasture, I was at least two promotions away from the dog's job. :)

Re:

[tenco]

Well, how do you know that it's peeing time?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

They just rounded the cockroaches up, like working dogs round up sheep, just like my radio control car rounds up my dog. We just need to build a big robot to run around hearding whatever we want. If they resist, we can create robots that push and shove.... PAK CHOOIE UNF.

Simple...

[jshriverWVU]

Freaking sweet!... while this might seem small. It's a first step in making synthetic life that can integrate into a real biosystem.

Re:

[binarybum]

umm, no. the first time that happened was when the doll was invented, and it's been going on ever since. [realdoll.com]

We're not interested in people.

[gv250]

From TFA:

The results also apply only to cockroaches, Dr. Halloy said. "We are not interested in people," he said.

He programmed his robot to play with his cockroaches, and he is not interested in people. Sounds like a /. reader to me.

but can't you see the tiny robots?

[xPsi]

Scientists have gotten tiny robots to not only integrate into cockroach society but also control it

So I guess (except for the cockroach part) it's a lot like life in the United States

Re:

[iron-kurton]

Hey, thanks for the link. I am becoming more and more interested in swarm intelligence, and am thinking of doing my master's project in this field. I found your link extremely interesting, and a good place to start (aside from Kennedy and Eberhart's Swarm Intelligence http://www.swarmintelligence.org/SIBook/SI.php [swarmintelligence.org]).

Re:

[stonecypher]

Anyone doing this kind of work really should be familiar with what Tilden has done.

You seem to have missed the point. The new research isn't about group behavior as a legitimate emergent effect of simple rules; that's well known. The new research is about demonstrating that the effect not only is in fact in practice specifically in cockroaches, but that the system of the cockroach can be understood and manipulated with simple tools. It's one thing to show that it's possible. It's another thing entirely

Get the cockroaches out of the house!

[Simonetta]

So, ahh, after all this research, do they have a program that will actually get the robot cockroaches to lead the bio-roaches OUT of the house? Or into a poison trap where they can all be killed?

I used to live in New Orleans. They have cockroaches there that are as big as your finger. They hang out on light bulbs. When you turn on a light in a dark room, you learn to put your hand in front of your face because the instant light causes the giant roaches to blast off the light bulb and often

Usefull application: controlling locust swarm

[slashdotmsiriv]

It is not that unlikely that a few thousand locust-like robots would be able to change the direction of huge locust swarms.

Cocked Roaches and Buggery!?

[davidsyes]

So, will they command it to bugger the bugs they bugged? I guess it will bug the shit out of them... real buggery-like...

Sounds kinda... insectstuous....

Watch out for mating season. This is the REAL widow-maker. Exoskeleton-crushing sex....from a real sex-bot... I wonder how endowed this bugger is...

Bender did that kind of thing too... or will do

[barwasp]

Yes, the Futurama - news channel has a full coverage of a similar story [wikipedia.org].

Re:

[dgatwood]

He also did that with space bees, sort of. Bzz bzz bzzzt. Bender is great. Deal with it.

Fire up the antennae...

[davidsyes]

Cuz when the championship sexbot arrives on scene, it can signal:

You... will... be... ass-immolate...

This.

[Eco-Mono]

Venser admired his handiwork and smiled. His first prototype had joined with the hive mind all too well, running with the brood and becoming a predator itself. This one, he thought, would be accepted into the hive but still obey his commands. [wizards.com]

So...

[Kjella]

...does this mean that the robots have passed the Turing test [wikipedia.org] for cockroaches? I guess probably not yet, but if we can create robots that can act like the real thing - well that's pretty much the definition of it isn't it?

I for one

[Culture20]

I for one welcome the Cockroach's robotic overlords.
Can you think of an easier way to get all the roaches into a Roach Motel?

Pest control

[SKPhoton]

They can control cockroach societies, eh? Hopefully they can have the robots train the cockroaches to commit seppuku.

Big headline simple bottomline

[kyashan]

Mentioning robots evokes AI, but the key is that those carts are doused with cockroach sex hormones.
Show me a girl with a miniskirt and over knee stockings and I'll follow her not 60% but 100% of the times.

Re:

[LrdDimwit]

The glowing red eyes wouldn't bother you any? My, what big ears you have, baby ...

Re:

[roman_mir]

So either the 40% of the roaches are gay, straight women or happily married (if there is such a thing.)

I Am Cockroach of Borg...

[morari]

Lower your exoskeletons and surrender your motels. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

Required....

[CFD339]

I, for one, welcome our new robotic insectoid swarm controlling overlords.

Do they have salami in Brussels?

[memorycardfull]

I don't see how the experiment described in the NYT story demonstrated anything other than cockroaches prefer dark places that smell like sex. The robots are "doused" with sex hormones. The way the experiment is presented presupposes that the hormones function to identify the robots as cockroaches to the other roaches. The conclusions drawn in the article present the behavior of the roaches in going where the robots are as imitation of peer behavior. The action of the robots is described as leading the

Insecthack

[WK2]

Somebody should tag this article insecthack.

Maybe this experiment could be extended ..

[Lord Accium]

On Nov 06, there was a story about a robot being treated as a peer by toddlers. If this experiment was repeated with children, maybe the robots will learn to influence them. Heres the link to that story : http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/06/2018230 [slashdot.org]

Pseudo-sentience

[hyades1]

"This experiment in bug peer pressure combined entomology, robotics and the study of ways that complex and even intelligent patterns can arise from simple behavior."

They could have reached the same conclusions a lot easier simply by studying Congress. And fewer people would be upset if they sacrificed the subjects at the end of the study.

Re:

[memorycardfull]

Lobbyists are like robots with doused with money instead of sex hormones.

Skewed

[Oligonicella]

The fact that they used sex hormones makes the results skewed at best. Give me the sex hormone used and the percentage of opposites that followed. Better yet, don't use sex hormones at all, just cockroach body odor and see what happens.

So, If I was a coackroach....

[Marcos Eliziario]

So, If I was a coackroach, I should be welcoming my new robotic overlords by now?

where

[cachimaster]

"WHERE IS SARAH CONNOR"

The robot is hot!

[bar-agent]

The article says they "doused the robot in eau de cockroach sex hormones."

I do believe that would make the robot smell all sexy.

Would you do stupid things for a hot chick? I know I would! Bungee-jumping off a cliff would be the least of it.

OMG they found it....

[ebbomega]

Finally, they've developed a robot that can do what Aquaman does, only MORE useless.