Realinsects

Finally, the experimenters examined real insects. To see if leg adhesion might also play a role in the walking coordination of real flies, they put polymer drops on the flies legs to cover their claws and adhesive pads as if the flies were wearing boots and watched what happened. The flies quickly began to use bipod like leg coordination similar to the one discovered in the simulation. This result shows that, unlike most robots, animals can adapt to find new ways of walking under new circumstances, said Robin Thandiackal, a co lead author of the study.