First turbo-speed cockroaches, now sex-crazed moths? LORD HAVE MERCY.
In attempt to improve the navigational skills of robots, Japanese researchers devised this utterly disturbing contraption that allows male silkmoths to steer themselves towards female moths. Well, actually just their pheromones. What a tease! The experiment is part of a study on the sensory motor and tracking skills of the moths. The scientists will ultimately apply these findings to robots created to detect things like bombs, drugs, and oil spills.
Here’s how it went down: Fourteen moths were attached to Styrofoam balls. As the moths detected the lady scents, the balls rolled them forward; meanwhile sending signals to the robots’ drive motors. The scientists even programmed one of the robots with a tricky “turning bias,” designed to throw the moth off. But nothing was going to stop these guys from getting freaky — they all made it to their targets unscathed… only to learn they had been duped! Ever seen a moth with blue balls? Me neither, and I pray I never do. Whether we will ever manage to design robots who are as aptly goal-oriented as sex-starved insects, only time will tell.
