Researchers Make Cyborg Cockroaches with their Own Power Packs
DannyB writes:
Researchers make cyborg cockroaches that carry their own power packs
Solar cell and a battery can keep the cyborg's electronics running for weeks.
Have you ever thought you'd be seeing a cyborg cockroach that runs on solar power and carries a backpack that looks like an electric circuit? A team of researchers at Japan's RIKEN research institute has turned a regular Madagascar hissing cockroach into a real cyborg insect by connecting a lithium battery, a solar cell, multiple wires, and a tiny electronic circuit. The cyborg can be controlled using Bluetooth signals, and the researchers suggest that, in the future, such robo-bugs could be employed for search-and-rescue missions.
The researchers refer to their cyborg as an insect-computer hybrid system, and it incorporates a living insect as a platform and a mini-electronic system as its controller. Basically, it's a biobot that can be controlled like a robot, but it has the power to explore and navigate a complex environment with the proficiency of an insect.
[...] Whenever the researchers want the cockroach to move, they send a Bluetooth signal to the circuit board, which transmits electric current to the legs via the wires.
[...] other scientists proposed additional types of biorobots ranging from moth robots to cyborg beetles. However, most of these cyborg insects lack energy-harvesting devices on their body because the area and load of the harvesting device considerably impair their mobility. So adding a suitable energy-harvesting device (the solar cell) for recharging the electronic controlling unit on a cyborg insect has been one of the main achievements of their research.
Forget search and rescue. Imagine a data center or giant brain designed to be filled with these for servicing.
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