Scientists Remotely Control Flying Insects
A giant flower beetle with a radio transmitter (Credit: Tat Thang Vo Doan and Hirotaka Sato/NTU Singapore)
After mastering remote control of cockroaches, scientists now say they managed to control
insects in flight.
While crawling insects have been manipulated in lab settings since the 1990s, control of
flying insects has been a long-standing hurdle.
Researchers at University of California, Berkeley, now say they have managed to remotely
direct six-centimeter-long giant flower beetles to take off and land, turn left or right and even
hover in mid-air. The steering was relatively crude, and researchers say theres room for
improvement. They determined that the muscle the controls folding the insect's wings is
also used for turning.
The insects were flying in a large room equipped with eight motion-capture cameras.
Scientists say someday the remote controlled insects could carry tiny cameras and serve in
search and rescue operations after earthquakes and other disasters.
Since the 1990s, scientists in laboratories around the world have been attaching miniature
electronic devices and electrodes to large cockroaches, trying to remotely control their
movements.
The technology got so good that today, at least one U.S. company sells kits with all required
electronics and live cockroaches, aimed at young experimenters in colleges and even high
schools.
COULD CYBORG BEETLES SOON
FLY TO THE RESCUE?
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
(Credit: Tat Thang Vo Doan and Hirotaka Sato/NTU Singapore)
Posted by Sarah Yang-Berkeley on March 18, 2015
Scientists used tiny computers and wireless radios, strapped onto the backs of giant
flower beetles, to record neuromuscular data as the bugs flew untethered.
The findings show that a muscle known for controlling the folding of wings is also critical
to steering.
The researchers then used that information to improve the precision of the beetles
remote-controlled turns.
This study, published in Current Biology, showcases the potential of wireless sensors in
biological research. Research in this field could also lead to applications such as tools to
aid search-and-rescue operations in areas too dangerous for humans.
UNTETHERED INSECTS
This is a demonstration of how tiny electronics can answer interesting, fundamental
questions for the larger scientific community, says Michel Maharbiz, an associate
professor in University of California, Berkeleys electrical engineering and computer
sciences department.
Biologists trying to record and study flying insects typically had to do so with the subject
tethered. It had been unclear if tethering interfered with the insects natural flight
motions.
In particular, the researchers say, it had been difficult to elucidate the role that smaller
muscles play in fine steering. What the new study found was that the coleopteran third
axillary sclerite (3Ax) muscle, found in the articulation of insect wings, plays a key
function in the beetles ability to steer left or right.
Since the 1800s, this coleopteran muscle was thought to function solely in wing
folding, says study lead author Hirotaka Sato, an assistant professor at Singapores
Nanyang Technological Universitys School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Our wireless system allows us to record neuromuscular movements in natural, free
flight, so we see now that this muscle is also used for turning.
MICROCONTROLLER IN A BACKPACK
The researchers tested the function of this muscle by stimulating it during flight for
graded turns that were more controlled than previous versions of the cyborg beetle.
Experiments were done with Mecynorrhina torquata, or giant flower beetles. They
averaged 6 centimeters in length and 8 grams in weight, about as heavy as a $1 coin.
The beetle backpack is made up of a tiny, off-the-shelf microcontroller and a built-in
wireless receiver and transmitter. Six electrodes are connected to the beetles optic
lobes and flight muscles. The entire device is powered by a 3.9-volt micro lithium battery
and weighs 1 to 1.5 grams.
Beetles are ideal study subjects because they can carry relatively heavy payloads,
says Sato, who began the work while he was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley
and has continued the project at NTU.
We could easily add a small microphone and thermal sensors for applications in
search-and-rescue missions. With this technology, we could safely explore areas not
accessible before, such as the small nooks and crevices in a collapsed building.
During test flights, signals were transmitted to the beetle backpack every millisecond,
directing the beetles to take off, turn left or right, or even hover in mid-flight. The beetles
were untethered but in a closed room equipped with eight 3D motion-capture cameras.
In our earlier work using beetles in remote-controlled flight, we showed excellent control
of flight initiation and cessation, but relatively crude control of steering during free flight,
says Maharbiz, principal investigator on the project.
Our findings about the flight muscle allowed us to demonstrate for the first time a higher
level of control of free-flying beetles. Its a great partnership between engineering and
science.
The Nanyang Assistant Professorship and the Agency for Science, Technology and
Research in Singapore, and the National Science Foundation in the United States
funded the work.
Source: UC Berkeley
This Cyborg Cockroach's Nervous System Is Hardwired for Remote Control
Cockroaches have often been selected for remote control cyborg treatment,
but they're typically given instructions by electrically stimulating their
antennae. This little, critter, though has the electrics on his back hardwired
into his nervous system, allowing for human remote control of his motor
functions.
The cockroach in the picture carries a battery-powered microcontroller
much like thecommercial units you can buy to create your own RC-roach. But
those DIY kits simply use electrodes to stimulate the animal's antennae.
Researchers from Texas A&M University have found that directly tapping into
the pro-gangliona bundle of nerve cells in the cockroach's first thoracic
segmentprovides far better results.
Stimulating the antennae simply tricks the cockroach into thinking that an
obstacle lies ahead, but directly stimulating the nervous system gives more
consistent results. In experiments, the researchers found they could make
the 'roach walk and turn using judicious stimulation of one or both sides of
the nerve bundle. The team call their creation a "remotely controlled hybrid
robotic system."
If it all seems a little creepy, you can at least console yourself with the fact
that it's hoped such robo-roaches will be used in the future to find human
trapped beneath debris. Small, nimble and self-powered, cyborg cockroaches
compare favorably to their purely robotic counterparts, at least for now.
[Journal of the Royal Society Interface via New Scientist]
Cyborg Cockroaches Could Be Used To Save Trapped Humans
Controlling cockroaches with electrical 'backpacks' is one of those science
experiments that's simultaneously quite cool and ethically grey. What might
make you feel better, though, is the knowledge that those remote-controlled
cockroaches may save your life if you ever get trapped inside a burning
building.
Researchers from North Carolina State University have outfitted cyborg
cockroaches with microphones which, when wired up to the roaches' normal
sensory appartus, means that the 'biobots' will seek out the source of a
sound. The scientists hope that, in addition to providing a good tracking tool
to Skynet, this will also enable humans to find other humans in enclosed
spaces like a collapsed building.
Cyborg cockroaches themselves are nothing particularly new 'Roboroach'
kits let you cheaply control your very own cockroach, by microstimulating
the cockraoches' antennae with eletrical signals like steering a horse with
reins, only these reins are electrodes that are strapped to their heads.
The North Carolina researchers took this one step further, attaching
microphones to their roaches' cerci, which are the sensory organs that
cockroaches normally use to sense if their abdomen brushes into something.
Therefore, by stimulating the cerci, the roach can be 'encouraged' to move
forward, or left, or right, and ultimately towards the source of a sound. The
hope is that those sounds will end up being people screaming for help, and
that by trapping the cockroaches' transmitters, rescuers will be able to find
people trapped in disaster scenarios.
What having a team of cyborg cockroaches crawling over the victims will do
to their mental health remains to be seen. [North Carolina State
University via Gizmag]
Brian Barito
35 14 100 048
Geomatics Engineering
