'Robo-roach' takes charge.

Nature has given us so many real cockroaches that it seems quite unnecessary to create artificial ones. But a team of scientists in Belgium has done just that. The purpose of their matchbox-size "robo-roaches" is to study collective intelligence, says Jose Halloy, a scientist at the Free University of Brussels. Roaches, ants, bees, and many other creatures share a kind of "mob intellect." The robots contain a roachy-smelling chemical that fools the real bugs into believing they are part of their group. Roaches will even follow the robots from dark to light places. Could these devices also march the insects into the nearest glue trap? As tempting as this sounds, the researchers' goal is not roach extermination. Ultimately, the technology could be used to develop smarter computers and robots. "We want machines to perform independently without human intervention," says Halloy. Another goal is to influence "collective choice" and control animal behavior with artificial systems that could herd sheep without a sheepdog or persuade flocks of pigeons to leave parks. So far, researchers say they are making progress with chickens, which exhibit a destructive panic behavior that might be calmed with "poultry-bots."