This Robo-Roach Might Someday Save Lives

[Voiceover] There's not a lot to like about cockroaches.

But someday they could save lives.

Okay, well not them exactly,

but robots inspired by cockroaches.

Cockroaches are such a pain,

in part because they can crawl into our homes,

through the smallest of openings.

But what if that compression was a good thing?

What if swarms of robotic bugs

could be sent into disaster areas,

like earthquake rubble, to search for buried people.

That's the idea behind this robo-roach,

that's designed to mimic the cockroaches limbo act.

It's called CRAM,

Compressible Robot with Articulated Mechanisms.

Researchers at UC Berkeley,

pressed a real cockroach for its secrets.

Okay, sorry about that.

And then they designed this robotic version, to do the same.

Not only can its carapace, that's a fancy word for shell,

be crushed, but so can its motorized body,

thanks to a hinged spine, and these clever legs,

that just keep on trucking, no matter how tight the squeeze.

This version is still pretty big,

but in the future,

there could be swarms of miniature robo-roaches

equipped with cameras, GPS, and other sensors

to wriggle through rubble to find survivors.

Imagine just how happy you might be,

to see a pile of cockroaches then.