How do you design a drone capable of carrying out searches on collapsed buildings? Take inspiration from nature and robotise them.
Some scientists are experimenting on transforming flying insects like beetles into cyborgs for military uses. Others choose to concentrate on the darker side of entomology by putting cockroaches under electronic control.
The first cyber-cockroach was created by Shimoyama Isao, at the University of Tokyo in 1997. He delivered electrical signals to the insects’ antennae, prompting it to turn left or right depending on which antenna was engaged.
Sato Hirotaka of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has been working on cyber insects including flying variants in the form of huge flower bugs. His cyber-cockroach iterations are autonomous units, instead of being operated by a remote control. Their backpacks are generated by algorithms that respond directly to built-in sensors, allowing them to function.
One of the prototypes are the six-centimetre long Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Their backpacks consist of a communications chip, a carbon dioxide sensor, a motion sensor, an infrared camera and a tiny battery.
A flock of these roaches would be unleashed into the rubble during search and rescue efforts in collapsed structures. They will search for signs of life such as movement, body heat, and elevated CO2 levels from breathing.
An artificial intelligence is configured into the camera, which determines if a set of signals signifies the presence of a human. It notifies a rescuer when it predicts that it has identified someone.
Dr. Sato and his team led a series of experiments in a simulated disaster site. They covered a 25-square-meter space with concrete blocks of various shapes and sizes. There were several persons among them, as well as several decoys such as a heat lamp, a microwave, and a laptop.
After programming the start and finish points of the search, they released the cyber-cockroaches. The software successfully identified humans 87 percent of the time.
The system will be further enhanced for outdoor use in the project’s next phase. The backpacks must next be commercialised, as well as the automation of their connection to the insects. Past experiments have expanded on this concept such as enlisting the help of additional sensory organs like the backward-facing cerci.
