Cockroaches mingle with robotic bugs

Washington, November 17: - Tiny robots programmed to act like roaches were able to blend into cockroach society, according to researchers studying the collective behavior of insects. Cockroaches tend to self-organise into leaderless groups, seeming to reach consensus on where to rest together.

For example, when provided two similar shelters, most of the group tended to gather under the same one.

Hoping to learn more about this behavior, researchers led by Jose Halloy at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, designed small robots programmed to act like a cockroach.

The robots didn't look like the insects and at first the roaches fled from them, but after the scientists coated the robots with pheromones that made them smell like roaches the machines were accepted into the group, nesting together with the insects.

Given a choice, roaches generally prefer a darker place and the robots were programmed to do the same.

When given a choice of a darker or lighter shelter, 75 percent of the cockroaches and 85 percent of the robots gathered under the darker one.

Then, to see if the robots had really become part of society and could influence group decisions, Halloy and colleagues programmed them to prefer shelters with more light.

The result, the lighter shelter was preferred by the mixed group 61 percent of the time, while the cockroaches alone picked it just 27 percent of the time.

On the other hand, in 39 percent of cases the robots, despite being programmed to prefer a lighter shelter, joined the cockroaches under the darker one.

The findings were reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

On the Net:

First "robot" electric guitar tunes itself

wire photo

Los Angeles, November 14: Ever get mad trying to figure out why your version of "Voodoo Child" doesn't sound like Jimi Hendrix?

Help is at hand from what is described as the world's first robot guitar -- an electric guitar that not only keeps itself in tune even after string changes but also allows players to access six nonstandard tunings at the push of a button.

After 15 years of research, Gibson Guitar is launching a limited edition Les Paul Robot Guitar next month that has set players abuzz with both enthusiasm and skepticism.

"It will not make you a better guitar player but it will allow the average player to access some very sophisticated tunings," Gibson Guitar Chief Executive Henry Juszkiewicz told Reuters on Tuesday.

The six nonstandard preset tunings were used on hits ranging from "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones and Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" to Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" and Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game."

Gibson says the robot guitar is aimed at amateurs who have a hard time keeping their guitars in tune, as well as professionals who now use technicians during concerts to keep about 100 guitars tuned to different keys.

"Professional guitar players use a lot of different tuning and people who listen to the stars wonder why they can't reproduce the same sound themselves," Juszkiewicz said.

Temperature variations, changing strings and simply playing the instrument have long been tuning challenges for guitarists with even the best musical ear.

But some have already poured scorn on the robot guitar.

"I'm sorry, this is just lazy. With stuff like this, tuning is going to be a lost skill," wrote LettheBassPlay on the www.ultimate-guitar.com Web site forum.

Gibson said the robot guitar is the biggest advance in electric guitar design in more than 70 years.

"It's very addictive," Juszkiewicz said.

Gibson will launch 4,000 limited edition, blue silverburst Les Gibson Robot Guitars around the world on Dec. 7 at a price in the region of $2,500. It expects to roll out a standard robot edition starting in January 2008.