This paper presents general ideas on design and implementation of robots to be used together with groups of animals. This work is part of the European project LEURRE aiming to study, model and control mixed societies of animals and robots. After a short presentation of the general project, the implications on the special requirements are discussed. The design process of the robot are described leading to the implementation of the autonomous mini robot called InsBot. This is very compact (19/spl times/30/spl times/41 mm/sup 3/), has many sensors (12 IR proximity, linear camera and temperature) and is able to interact with gregarious cockroaches.