GeneralResearchers create cyborg roaches to help in search and rescue efforts

Researchers create cyborg roaches to help in search and rescue efforts

If you think it’s all right to use mind control of sorts to turn roaches into your cyborg servants, then North Carolina State University researchers have just the thing for you. The scientists have developed a type of electronic backpack that can direct the movements of the insect to which it is attached.

These ‘biobots’ pick up sounds through the small microphones which are part of the apparatus and automatically look for the source. The technology has the potential to save lives during rescue operations. Two types of electronic backpacks will be required in order to put the setup to proper use.

cyborg-roaches

One class of equipment contains a single microphone capable of capturing high resolution audio and wirelessly transmitting this to first responders. The second kind constitutes an array of three directional microphones which are meant to analyze the area from where a sound is coming. Both backpacks coerce the roaches carrying them to move towards the source of the disturbance.

But the researchers working on this project have yet to build a system to help differentiate between sounds such as a person calling for help and a leaking pipe, for starters. So how do you keep a cyborg cockroach from wandering out of the disaster site? The scientists have also exhibited a technology for setting up an invisible fence that prevents biobots from wandering out of a defined area.

This is essential since the cyborg roaches should ideally function in tandem and serve as a mobile wireless network in order for them to assist responders in search and rescue or similar operations. The aforementioned fencing technology can also be altered to steer biobots towards light sources for the purpose of recharging the miniature solar panels on the backpacks fitted onto these creepy crawlies.

This is not the first time researchers are demonstrating the usefulness of biobots, since cyborg cockroaches were previously shown to be capable of mapping disaster areas too.

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