Exoskeleton Makes Robotic Roach Flexibly Squishy

Last July, we wrote about a pair of papers from UC Berkeley that explored what happens when you put rigid shells on top of the skittery little legged robots that they've been working on over there for like a decade now. As it turned out, the shells offered some environmental protection, while also enabling the robots to autonomously negotiate obstacles that they'd have gotten stuck on otherwise. But real insects use their exoskeletons for much more, and by taking inspiration from that most noble of beasts, the mighty cockroach, UC Berkeley has developed a legged robot that can flatten itself out to slide through the narrowest of gaps. In a paper published in PNAS, Kaushik Jayaram (from Robert Full's lab at UC Berkeley) discusses how cockroaches are the ideal mix of firm outsides and soft, chewy insides. Their exoskeletons are flexible and segmented, allowing them to squish down to squeeze through narrow gaps, which explains why you probably have a whole bunch of them (or similar structured insects) living in your house RIGHT NOW despite your best efforts to keep them out.