Question: What is your opinion of Swiss researchers recent development of edible robots made of gelatin? In a different context, do you agree that introducing edible robots to habitats could increase the population of endangered species who eat insects?

Dmitry Dereshev answered on 17 Mar 2017:

I think it would be pretty hard to develop the exact ingredient cocktails for endangered species in a cheap-enough way, especially if you need them in bulk, and delivered to remote places (the actuators that the Swiss scientist have developed aren’t fast enough to move to the remote locations on their own, I’d say). But maybe it’s just an exciting logistics problem 🙂

As with a lot of early research I look at, my immediate reaction is: let’s see where they take it from this early prototype stage. You could certainly learn a lot about the insides of alive animals in their natural habitats with these robots.

Soft robotics is a cool field, though. A lot of potential is there.