Ant trails, airborne chemicals, wood vibrations—scientists have
a long history of borrowing clever communication techniques from
the animal kingdom. Inspired by the odd social habits of a cave-
dwelling cricket, scientists have now taught robots to
communicate by firing rings of pressurized air at each other.
The cricket in question is the African cave cricket
(Phaeophilacris spectrum), which rapidly flicks its wings to
launch donut-shaped air rings, a type of vortex, to both
potential mates and enemies. Reduced to two kinds of messages,
its “language” is pretty simple: It sends isolated vortices to
threaten its rival, and a rapid sequence of vortices to woo
would-be lovers. When Andy Russell, an engineer at Monash
University in Australia, learned about the cricket, he thought
this technique would improve robots’ ability to communicate in
noisy environments—but that wasn’t the only benefit. “Like the
cave crickets, there may be times when a robot does not want its
communications intercepted,” Russell told New