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Watch a swarm of cyborg cockroaches controlled by computers
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2424745-watch-a-swarm-of-cyborg-cockroaches-controlled-by-computers/Watch a swarm of cyborg cockroaches controlled by computers
Remote-controlled cockroaches with computers mounted on their backs can move as a swarm towards a target location, and could be used for search missions
By Matthew Sparkes
16 April 2024
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.
Hirotaka Sato 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.
[...]
The team has also shown that a rainbow crab (Cardisoma armatum) can be turned into a “bio-robot” in the same way as cockroaches and directed to walk forward or sideways in water and on land.
Sato says a swarm of cyborg cockroaches and a bio-robotic crab could work together to achieve goals. “The crab can help the cockroaches. We are working on such kinds of things, but it takes time,” he says. “In one or two years’ time, we will make it.”
Reference: arXiv DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2403.17392
Remote-controlled cockroaches with computers mounted on their backs can move as a swarm towards a target location, and could be used for search missions
By Matthew Sparkes
16 April 2024
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.
Hirotaka Sato 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.
[...]
The team has also shown that a rainbow crab (Cardisoma armatum) can be turned into a “bio-robot” in the same way as cockroaches and directed to walk forward or sideways in water and on land.
Sato says a swarm of cyborg cockroaches and a bio-robotic crab could work together to achieve goals. “The crab can help the cockroaches. We are working on such kinds of things, but it takes time,” he says. “In one or two years’ time, we will make it.”
Reference: arXiv DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2403.17392