Biobots Borrow Design from Millions of Years of Evolution

When designing our future robot overlords, scientists are borrowing ideas that have withstood the test of time over millions of years of evolution (or seven days of creation, depending on your point of view). This video from New Scientist shows how animals are inspiring robotics design, as evidenced by these robotic fish, salamanders, segmented wormlike beings, and even a few mini-bots that don’t mind slumming it with a bunch of cockroaches. We’re thinking the next step will be to make the robots slimier and more slithery, completing the aesthetic link to their animalistic forebears. Attach a few weapons, equip them with menacing voices, and they’ll be good for eliminating a few useless carbon-based biological units. [New Scientist, via Danger Room]