Reports and Surveys

摘要

InsBot—Sociable mini-robot. The Director of the Social Ecology Laboratory at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles has described the success of a ?3 million European Union (EU) experiment for pest control. Dr. Jean-Louis Deneubourg believes that the EU funded initiative has many ramifications for more than just pest control. This Belgium-led research team has spent over three years developing a mini-robot that can convince cockroaches to come out of their dark holes and gather in light areas so that they can be successfully controlled or exterminated. The mini-robot is named InsBot and resembles an ordinary pencil sharpener rather than another cockroach. The key we are told to its success is that it smells like a cockroach and apparently can pass for the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana). The mini-robot has a cocktail of pheromones and molecules painted on its body. This allows it to infiltrate the cockroach community.