Tech Japanese scientists create a rechargeable, remote-controllable cockroach

[thomas]

Researchers have engineered a system for creating remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches equipped with a tiny wireless control module powered by a rechargeable battery attached to a solar cell. Cyborg insects—part insect, part machine—can help inspect hazardous areas and monitor the environment. Handlers must be able to control them remotely for long stretches of time. This entails wireless control of their leg segments, powered by a tiny rechargeable battery.

Japanese scientists create remote-controlled cockroach | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

Researchers in Japan have developed a system that can remotely control insects. They say it can be used to help find people trapped during natural disasters.

www3.nhk.or.jp

Led by Kenjiro Fukuda, RIKEN CPR, the team experimented with Madagascar cockroaches, which are approximately 6 cm long. They attached the wireless leg-control module and lithium polymer battery to the top of the insect on the thorax using a specially designed backpack, which was modeled after the body of a model cockroach. The backpack was 3D printed with an elastic polymer and conformed perfectly to the curved surface of the cockroach, allowing the rigid electronic device to be stably mounted on the thorax for more than a month. The ultrathin 0.004 mm thick organic solar cell module was mounted on the dorsal side of the abdomen. "The body-mounted ultrathin organic solar cell module achieves a power output of 17.2 mW, which is more than 50 times larger than the power output of current state-of-the art energy harvesting devices on living insects," according to Fukuda.

Robobug: a rechargeable, remote-controllable cyborg cockroach

www.riken.jp

 

[Uncle Frank]

In the year 2025, what started out as an experiment went terribly wrong.

 

[Petaris]

Researchers have engineered a system for creating remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches equipped with a tiny wireless control module powered by a rechargeable battery attached to a solar cell. Cyborg insects—part insect, part machine—can help inspect hazardous areas and monitor the environment. Handlers must be able to control them remotely for long stretches of time. This entails wireless control of their leg segments, powered by a tiny rechargeable battery.

Japanese scientists create remote-controlled cockroach | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

Researchers in Japan have developed a system that can remotely control insects. They say it can be used to help find people trapped during natural disasters.

www3.nhk.or.jp

View attachment 89632

Robobug: a rechargeable, remote-controllable cyborg cockroach

www.riken.jp

I feel like solar power would not be very useful in a lot of the hazardous areas that would need something as small as an insect to inspect. I also feel like environmental monitoring could be done in more reliable ways then using a cyborg insect.

Don't get me wrong, its an interesting idea but I am curious what specific problem this would be a solution to. It would seem to me that the most obvious use case would actually be spying....

 

[mdchachi]

I feel like solar power would not be very useful in a lot of the hazardous areas that would need something as small as an insect to inspect. I also feel like environmental monitoring could be done in more reliable ways then using a cyborg insect.

Don't get me wrong, its an interesting idea but I am curious what specific problem this would be a solution to. It would seem to me that the most obvious use case would actually be spying....

I'm sure it's the same problems they would use insect-sized robots for. They always talk about using them to find people in collapsed buildings or to investigate toxic or radioactive environments. But I'm sure spying is on the list. Probably the insects have some advantages in that they need less electrical power and won't become disabled if the power runs out.

 

[Petaris]

I'm sure it's the same problems they would use insect-sized robots for. They always talk about using them to find people in collapsed buildings or to investigate toxic or radioactive environments. But I'm sure spying is on the list. Probably the insects have some advantages in that they need less electrical power and won't become disabled if the power runs out.

But that is my point, those places would not generally be anywhere that would have enough light in order to recharge them and I doubt that they would have much of a battery life given the size constraints.

However having one hang out in a bush or tree or on the side of a wall in an office would probably have enough light, but that doesn't seem like the type of thing you would need for a rescue or toxic/radioactive environment situation. Maybe I am just being skeptical or cynical but the use cases seem to be a bit limited.

 

[thomas]

More on the bugbot:

​

The scientists, primarily from the Riken research institute, said a Madagascar hissing cockroach fitted with a ultrathin solar cell and a Bluetooth short-range wireless communication unit turned right or left in accordance with their instructions. “We may be able to mobilize cyborg insects to find people buried under debris in a disaster if we can put a thin temperature sensor on the bugs,” said Kenjiro Fukuda, a senior research scientist at Riken. A power generator is essential for controlling the movements of insects and collecting data from them. Fukuda and his colleagues developed a 4-micrometer-thick solar cell, the world’s thinnest, to not impair the motion abilities of insects. The battery can be recharged as long as the insects are alive.

Nimble cyborg cockroaches may join rescue team at disaster sites | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

 

[johnnyG]

I wonder how well they'd do on Mars. Or Europa.

(even without the battery/solar)