The flattened bodies of cockroaches can get into places that no human can, without leaving a trace. They’ll eat just about anything, and they’re darn near indestructible.
All these qualities make them the perfect steed for search-and-rescue operations, among other more questionable applications, like surveillance. That’s why a team from the University of Osaka in Japan and Diponegoro University in Indonesia decided that cyborg cockroaches would be a good idea.
The concept involves combining the best of both worlds: the organic cockroach anatomy, fine-tuned across millions of years of evolution to navigate small spaces and hostile environments, guided to a target destination of human choosing by a few electronic nudges from a high-tech backpack.
“The creation of a functioning robot on a small scale is challenging; we wanted to sidestep this obstacle by keeping things simple,” explains lead author Mochammad Ariyanto, a mechanical engineer from Diponegoro University.
“By simply attaching electronic devices to insects, we can avoid the finer details of robotics engineering and focus on achieving our goals.”
Let’s be honest: even the most advanced robots are pretty janky when it comes to movement. There’s a level of detail to animal motion that our best automatons haven’t even begun to crack.
That becomes especially apparent when it comes to vertical navigation: as all Whovians will know, many robots can easily be undone by a simple staircase. A cockroach, on the other hand, can climb walls, scale perimeters, penetrate pipes, and even tolerate low-oxygen environments.
Rather than starting from scratch, the team wanted to see if Madagascar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) could be mounted with sensors that detect motion, obstacles, humidity, temperature, and other data, as well as implanted electrodes on the antennae and body that can be used to guide the insect.
The whole shebang is called the ‘biohybrid behavior-based navigation (BIOBBN) system,’ and it’s based on reach-avoid programming, which involves the goal of reaching a set location while avoiding whatever obstacles arise en route.
BIOBBN features two navigation algorithms: one for simple environments and the other for more complex situations.
“The first navigation system could utilize a bulkier and heavier electronic backpack, while the second needed a more compact, lighter one to accommodate its complex terrain navigation,” the authors write.
They tested the bio-hacked roaches in an obstacle course strewn with sand, rocks, and wood. Navigation commands were used sparingly to ensure the cyborg reached its objective, but aside from that, the animals were mostly allowed to find their own way, avoiding or overcoming obstacles and righting themselves when things went topsy-turvy.
“This algorithm… leveraged the cockroaches’ natural behaviors, such as wall-following and climbing, to navigate around and over obstacles,” the authors write.
“The denser second scenario required more time due to increased obstacle avoidance and natural climbing behavior.”
The authors hope these bug-bots could be used to inspect the dangerous rubble left in the wake of war and natural disaster, and even detect survivors and rescue workers in trouble. They can send back data on places unfit for humans: the narrow pipes of buildings, deep tunnels underground, and sensitive cultural heritage sites. The team also notes their potential value in surveillance, which is a far more alarming prospect.
“I believe our cyborg insects can achieve objectives with less effort and power than purely mechanical robots,” says wet robotics engineer Keisuke Morishima from University of Osaka.
“Our autonomous biohybrid navigation system overcomes problems that have traditionally challenged robots, such as recovering from falling. This is what is needed for stepping outside the laboratory and into real-life scenarios like wilderness.”
Of course, it’s unclear how the cockroaches feel about all this.
This research was published in Soft Robotics.
