Study of caterpillars shows how creepy-crawlies could help shape robots

Chen explained his research findings regard different strategies for caterpillars to attach to surfaces between the two species. "The garden tiger moth uses its very advanced prolegs, which are additional legs on the abdomen, to directly attach to flat, edged, or rod cylinder surfaces. This is unlike for most insects which only have legs on the thorax."

However, "The African bush brown butterfly has simpler legs that do not grip flat surfaces and especially flat smooth or fine rough surfaces well. Instead, they cover the surface in silk and then hold on to the silk threads. This caterpillar can even avoid wasting silk by adjusting how much silk it produces, as well as the strength of the thread it produces depending on the roughness or angle of the surface," Chen introduced.

As well as paving the way for future pest control among crops, Chen's work could help in the development of future robots.

"Caterpillar attachment is particularly interesting because caterpillars are one of the few legged soft-bodied organisms and allow us to understand how this type of organism moves, potentially inspiring soft robotics applications," the young researcher said.

Chen noted that caterpillars are important herbivores with major effects in ecosystem function or sometimes as pests.

"Understanding how they attach to surfaces helps us to understand how they use their food plants, and how plants might defend themselves, or how we might defend crop plants without using pesticides," he said.

This fall, Chen starts a PhD program at Cambridge to continue his research into the amazing world of caterpillars.

"In the future, I would like to understand how caterpillar prolegs evolved," he said.

Xinhua