Cyborg-Insect Factory is a real machine that turns cockroaches into robots

"The advancement of insect-computer hybrid robots holds significant promise for navigating complex terrains and enhancing robotics applications," writes Hirotako Sato and colleagues at the Nanyang Technology University in Singapore.

Indeed, researchers have demonstrated that insects can be outfitted with sensors and electrodes in tiny backpacks that enable human operators to steer the bugs as they scurry around collecting data. The trick though is that a real search and rescue operation would require a large number of these robugs. That was the impetus for Sato and team to build the Cyborg-Insect Factory, a machine that can implant the electronics into a Madagascar hissing cockroach in about one minute.

"The advancement of insect-computer hybrid robots holds significant promise for navigating complex terrains and enhancing robotics applications," the researchers write in their scientific paper. "The proposed automatic assembly strategy reduced preparation time for the insect-computer hybrid robots while maintaining their precise control, laying a foundation for scalable production and deployment in real-world applications."

Previously:
• This tiny robot bug can survive getting stepped on
• Tiny videocamera worn by an insect