A swarm of remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches can navigate to a target location while avoiding obstacles and each other. Researchers say such swarms could be contained inside large robots and released on cue to do jobs that would take too long for a single machine, such as taking sensor readings or hunting for specific objects.
at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and his colleagues have previously demonstrated that a Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa) can be controlled by a computer and steered like a robot.
In these experiments, cockroaches wore 鈥渂ackpacks鈥� consisting of a battery, a tiny computer and an antenna to communicate with a central computer. The team issued commands to each insect through electrodes implanted in sensory organs known as cerci on each side of the animals. When the electrodes applied current to the left or right cercus, the cockroach rotated in that direction.
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Now, the researchers have shown that a swarm of 20 such cyborgs can travel as one across a sandy, hilly test area 3.5 square metres in size, designed to mimic a desert.
To coordinate the swarm, software on the central computer assigns some cockroaches as leaders that nearby insects follow to the target. The strategy was inspired by seeing tour guides leading sightseers.
The computer dictates the direction the cyborgs move in, but the movement of their limbs, and therefore their ability to climb over or around obstacles 鈥� which is extremely difficult to replicate mechanically and electronically 鈥� is handled by the cockroach itself.
In the test, when a cockroach accidentally rolled onto its back, nearby insects would work together to right it; this is an intrinsic behaviour, not one directed by the computer, says Sato.
Sato says swarms of cyborg cockroaches would be ideal for surveying areas in large numbers, taking environmental readings from onboard sensors, for example, or searching for humans trapped in rubble following a natural disaster. The swarm would be carried to a location by a larger robot and released when needed, carrying out a task and sending data back to a central computer, he suggests. This cyborg swarm could then return to the robot to recharge their control backpacks and access food and water.
The team has also shown that a rainbow crab (Cardisoma armatum) can be turned into a 鈥渂io-robot鈥� in the same way as cockroaches and directed to .
Sato says a swarm of cyborg cockroaches and a bio-robotic crab could work together to achieve goals. 鈥淭he crab can help the cockroaches. We are working on such kinds of things, but it takes time,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n one or two years鈥� time, we will make it.鈥�
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