A team of European scientists developed a tiny robot that makes cockroaches believe it is one of them.

The LEURRE Project already got some press back in 2004 (see Times), but now the researchers actually can demonstrate that their plan worked and the cockroach robot can lure real live cockroaches to a place of its choice.

The robot cockroach moves like a real one and because cockroaches have bad sight, they do not see that the robot is just a box on wheels. For additional efficiency the researches covered the robot with cockroach pheromones. All cockroaches in the test left their preferred dark spot to hang with the robot.

The idea is to have robots roam invested houses and lure all cockroaches into traps.
More details on the Leurre project page. Via 3Sat nano TV report.