Robots That Talk Like Cave-Dwelling Crickets: Using Silent Puffs Of Air

Ant trails, airborne chemicals, wood vibrations---scientists have a long history of borrowing clever communication techniques from the animal kingdom. Inspired by the odd social habits of a cave-dwelling cricket, scientists have now taught robots to communicate by firing rings of pressurized air at each other. The cricket in question is the African cave cricket (Phaeophilacris spectrum), which rapidly flicks its wings to launch donut-shaped air rings, a type of vortex, to both potential mates and enemies. Reduced to two kinds of messages, its "language" is pretty simple: It sends isolated vortices to threaten its rival, and a rapid sequence of vortices to woo would-be lovers. When Andy Russell, an engineer at Monash University in Australia, learned about the cricket, he thought this technique would improve robots' ability to communicate in noisy environments---but that wasn't the only benefit. "Like the cave crickets, there may be times when a robot does not ...