Scientists turn spider corpses into 'zombie robots'

In a new study, Rice University mechanical engineers have found a way to turn the carcasses of spiders into a mechanical gripper. And they can even pick up objects larger than themselves. They call these zombie spiders "Necrobotic".

'In a few cases, postmortem spiders are the perfect architecture for small-scale, naturally-derived grippers,' said Daniel Preston, of Rice University's George R. Brown School of Engineering , said.

The spider carcass is activated to pick up objects.

The engineers used wolf spiders for their research. This is a spider that can lift more than 130% of their body weight. And basically, spiders use blood pressure as a form of hydraulics to move their limbs. There is a cavity near their head, called the prosoma chamber, that will contract to bring blood to the limbs, forcing their legs to expand, and when the pressure is reduced, the legs will contract.

And that's why when spiders die, their heart stops beating, the pressure goes away and they curl up into a ball. And scientists have paired this natural pressure system with a syringe filled with air to form a handy robotic arm.

An illustration showing how Rice University mechanical engineers turned dead spiders into robotic arm-like grips to grasp objects when activated by hydraulic pressure.

'This field is very exciting because we are using previously untapped materials and drivetrains,' said assistant professor Daniel Preston. And according to Preston, the potential applications of future research will include areas such as microelectronic assembly.

The results showed that the carcasses of the wolf spiders were surprisingly durable. They can go through about 1,000 foot-opening cycles before the joints begin to fail. And even this problem could be solved just by adding a polymer coating to prevent biodegradation.

And another interesting thing is that the smaller the spider, the more it can lift its own weight.

Turn a dead spider into a robot arm