Robot Cockroaches

Wait, don't step on that one! Scientists in Switzerland are making robot cockroaches that will mimic the behaviors of real cockroaches in order to hopefully get the real cockroaches to follow them to a trap. Cockroaches really, really gross me out. I remember I could barely read Kafka's The Metamorphosis because I was so horrified of the descriptions (really, I often had to close the book and stop out of pure fright and disgust, then try tackling it later). Yuck! Anyway, if you read the article on the robot roaches, notice how near the bottom it talks about how possibly in the future robot chickens will be made to increase their movement:

Other applications are also envisaged for the computer programmes developed
under the Leurre project. Guy Theraulaz, the director of research at the CRCA,
says that it may be possible to build chicken-like robots that will be used to
stimulate poultry.
“A lot of chickens don’t move at all and die as a result.
They need to be encouraged to run around. Robots could do that.”

But wait a minute, here in America, isn't it that chickens don't move because they can't move in these modern factory farms! They are trapped in cages, crowded, of course they don't move-they physically can't! Ah, one more reason to encourage these factory farms to give them room to move. And perhaps a reason they will listen to: hey farmers, don't buy robot chickens, it would be so much cheaper to have ample room for your chickens and allow them to move around.

Well, I'm still learning about what goes on in factory farms. Perhaps someone else has something to share on this.