One of the hardiest and most flexible living beings now has a robot avatar

The unflagging loyalty and admiration of the scientific community for the cockroach never ceases to amaze. The bugs have been hailed for their intrepidness, their individual personalities and their planet-saving potential, not to mention their probable future as the last living beings left on a potentially ravaged Earth millions of years hence. But the clearly enamoured scientific community continues to unearth more virtues.

A few months ago, their ability to negotiate difficult terrain saw the advent of a roach rescue kit that could be fitted onto bugs and sent in as first responders in disasters like building collapses. That same famed talent as well as an unmistakable smooth discoid shape appear to be the inspiration for a new roach-shaped robot, adept at wriggling through the most Daedalian obstacles rather than using complicated algorithms and sensors to negotiate around, thereby wasting time and energy.

If cockroaches are the most marvellous creatures on this planet and not merely the most proliferous, why they have not assumed a more commanding role in our ecosystem is mystifying. Are they waiting for all humans to willingly acknowledge their superiority before asserting suzerainty? Indeed, scientists seem to be guaranteeing an eventual takeover by constantly discovering their exceptional attributes.