The first wireless flying-insect cyborg—a remote-controlled beetle—has been developed by engineers at the University of California at Berkeley. The six-legged biomechanical hybrid can rise, hover, and fly on command, guided by a radio receiver that relays signals to electrodes connected to the insect’s optic lobes and flight muscles. Researchers demonstrated the beetle at the 2009 IEEE MEMS conference in Italy after showing off a preliminary version at the same conference in 2008.
With the mind of a machine and the nimble body of an insect, this bug-bot may be the perfect scout: inexpensive, expendable, and capable of surreptitious reconnaissance. The Berkeley researchers, led by Michael Maharbiz, note that beetles are strong enough to carry useful payloads, such as a miniature camera.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funds this work, is also sponsoring research on ways to implant insects with machinery during early stages of their lives. Butterflies ...
