Cyborg robo-cockroaches can now be mass-produced
It's possible to create remote controlled roaches in just over one minute thanks to a sinister new production process.
There are few things more disgusting than a cockroach. Except, perhaps, mind-controlled robotic cyborg roaches working for the intelligence services.
Unfortunately, we've moved closer to a world in which nightmarish "insect-computer hybrids" become frighteningly common thanks to engineers in Singapore who claim to have discovered a way of mass-producing these mini-monsters.
A team from Nanyang Technological University has been working on developing cyborg cockroaches for several years. By connecting electrodes to their muscles, neuron systems, and sensory organs, the scientists can control the beasties by making them turn left or right.
They managed to hack into little-understood swarm behaviour mechanisms in order to steer large groups of roaches at the same time. These hordes were then seen to collaborate, with individual insects joining forces to help out friends who had fallen onto their backs.
It's been suggested that the cyborg creepy-crawlies could carry out search and rescue operations after natural disasters or perform top-secret surveillance missions.
However, the surgery required to create cyborg cockroaches was extremely risky and delicate. It also led to varying results, with the insect robot hybrids behaving differently depending on the skill of the person who installed the implants.
Hissing cyborgs
Now, researchers from Nanyang Technological University have devised a new method for turning Madagascan hissing cockroaches into cyborgs.
"To ensure consistent production of insect-computer hybrid robots, it is
essential to transition from manual to automatic assembly processes," they wrote in a pre-print paper. "This is particularly important for applications requiring large numbers of these systems, such as post-disaster search and rescue or factory inspections, where multiple agents are more efficient than a single one. Achieving automatic assembly for insect-computer hybrid robots is thus a critical and urgent task to enable mass production."
The team devised a new method in which a robotic arm using computer vision automatically installed implants into an anesthetised roach before fitting a backpack equipped with a microcontroller, stimulation electrodes, and a mounting device onto the insect.
After its finished, the robotic arm releases the insect, captures an image of the next and begins its rather sinister work all over again.
"The entire assembly process took 68 seconds, demonstrating the efficiency of the proposed automated assembly approach for mass production," engineers wrote.
The cyborg insects performed just as well as hand-wired roaches. They could be steered up to 70 degrees left and right, made to speed up or slow down and navigated through complex environments - in groups. Yuck.
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