Cyborg's cockroach could save people trapped under debris

Washington, 9 September Scientists, including one from India, have developed a cyborg cockroach powered by a tiny neuro-controller that can be used in search and rescue missions to find people trapped under buildings collapsed.

Researchers have explored ways to attach live insects to miniaturized computer equipment so that they can manipulate the movements of an insect. Success has been limited and many technological challenges continue to exist.

This is due to the enormous difficulties encountered when building robotic systems on such a small scale and the difficulty of interfacing electronic equipment with the biological nervous tissue of the insect to trigger movement.

The neuro-controller microcircuit developed by researchers at the University of Connecticut in the United States is part of a tiny, electronic "backpack" that can be attached to the insect with its wires connected to them. antenna lobes of the insect.

By sending light electrical charges to the neural tissue in the left or right antenna lobe of the insect, operators can cause the insect to think that it has detected an obstacle, causing it to move in another direction.

A charge sent to the right antenna causes a cockroach shift to the left. Likewise, a charge towards the left antenna makes it move to the right.

The controller can stimulate the antenna lobes of an insect with the help of a four-channel microcircuit. The system also provides real-time feedback of the neuromuscular response to stimuli.

According to the researchers, this level of detail facilitates the monitoring and control of movements, a long-time advantage sought in the micro-insect community.

"The use of insects as platforms for small robots has an incredible number of useful applications ranging from search and rescue to national defense," said Abhishek Dutta, assistant professor at the University of New York. University of Connecticut.

"We believe that our microcircuit provides a more sophisticated and reliable control system that brings us closer to implementing this technology in the real world," said Evan Faulkner, an undergraduate researcher in his Dutta lab.

The controller value is in the form of an advanced 9-axis inertial measurement unit inside the device that follows the linear and rotational acceleration of an insect. , identify its course and detect the ambient temperature surrounding the creature.

According to scientists, this last characteristic is important because tests have shown that the ambient temperature can have an impact on the performance of some host insects.

The information collected by the microcircuit is transmitted to the operator via a tiny Bluetooth antenna on the device. The signal can be easily detected by an ordinary mobile phone.

As the course, acceleration, and other insect data come into play, operators can extrapolate the trajectory of the insect, adjust the antenna stimuli accordingly, send the appropriate electrical impulses to the insect from a distance and orient it in the desired direction.

To test the new controller, the researchers attached the device to a whistling cockroach from Madagascar in his lab.

Tests showed that the cockroach moved to the left when its right antenna lobe was stimulated and shifted to the right when the left received a small electrical charge. MHN