Scientists Took In Spider Corpses And Turned Them Into ‘Necrobots’

Got a fear of spiders? Well, you may be comforted—or beyond terrified—by the fact that these ones are already dead. Mechanical engineers at Rice University have renewed dead spiders with a life purpose by transforming them into “necrobotic” grippers à la the claws at those arcade machines. Because the only things freakier than sentient robots are undead ones.

This army of creepy-crawly zombies came about after the researchers spotted a dead spider all curled up into a ball. They then learned that arachnids rely on hydraulic pressure to extend their limbs. However, “when they die, they lose the ability to actively pressurize their bodies,” thus rolling into this shape, says Faye Yap, the experiment’s lead author.

So, naturally, the scientists thought, why not make the spiders walk again?

The team gathered some dead wolf spiders and reintroduced a hydraulic pressure system to their lifeless bodies, using air movements in place of flowing blood. The spiders were placed in a hydraulic chamber with a needle poked through, and this needle was used to create air inside the otherwise sealed-off container.

Just like that, the corpses’ legs extended, and the engineers were then able to induce a grabbing motion from all eight legs, turning the bodies into arcade-style claw machines.

Wolf spiders, an extremely common group of arachnids, can carry objects heavier than them. Further, their legs have tiny hairs to grip things more easily. These abilities were surprisingly regained during the experiment, and the necrobots were able to lift 130% their body weight. Some items they were made to carry included other dead wolf spiders.

Image via Preston Innovation Laboratory/Rice University

The conversion was all too easy, too. The scientists succeeded at making the dead spiders move on the first try.

Daniel Preston, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University and one of the researchers of the study, says this look into unexplored forms of soft robotics has been “a lot of fun.”

Despite the necrobots being dead, they still had plenty of give. They were able to grip and lift weights over 1,000 cycles, though there was the inevitable wear and tear.

Playing with the macabre isn’t the goal here. The team expects that necrobots could fulfill a whole range of applications, like transporting delicate electrical parts.

Given the wide availability of wolf spiders, developing more of these soft robots would be easy and cheap. Of course, spiders are biodegradable, “so we’re not introducing a big waste stream, which can be a problem with more traditional components,” adds Preston.

Plus, since they’re dead, the grippers are quite gentle, which means it wouldn’t be too difficult for them to move wires or other fragile things around without damaging the objects.

The team hopes the experiment could inspire other scientists to develop their own necrobots from other animals.

[via Futurism and Live Science, images via Rice University]