Robot
Walter stressed the importance of using purely analogue electronics to simulate brain processes at a time when his contemporaries such as Alan Turing and John von Neumann were all turning towards a view of mental processes in terms of digital computation. His work inspired subsequent generations of robotics researchers such as Rodney Brooks, Hans Moravec and Mark Tilden. Modern incarnations of Walter's "turtles" may be found in the form of BEAM robotics.
The first digitally operated and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and was ultimately called the Unimate. This ultimately laid the foundations of the modern robotics industry. Devol sold the first Unimate to General Motors in 1960, and it was installed in 1961 in a plant in Trenton, New Jersey to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them. Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry.
Insbot
The scientists from LEURRE developed the first Insbot in 2002 and it has been undergoing development since. It runs on wheels and contains many computer processors, which are connected to cameras and proximity sensors, to help it avoid bumping into obstacles or other cockroaches. In the early stages of production, the group of scientists from LEURRE used a prior model, Alice robot, to conduct acceptance tests to determine how compatible the robot is within the society of cockroaches. The main challenges they faced were the robot's small size, the high level of integration (many sensors), and the darkness of the cockroach cuticle (Infrared (IR) sensors sensitivity). With the help of these tests, the scientists built a newer model which contained IR emitters with increased power, wireless communication modules for monitoring, additional sensors, more computational power, and a greater memory.