from the people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-used-robot-beetles dept.
As reported by ScienceNews.org:
Resistance may soon be futile. With machine implants worthy of a Star Trek villain, a new breed of beetle takes walking instructions from its human overlords.
Hirotaka Sato and his colleagues at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore inserted electrodes into flower beetles (Mecynorrhina torquata) to stimulate specific leg muscle groups. By altering the order of electrical zap sequences, the team was able to control a beetle's gait. Changing the duration of the electrical signals also altered the insects' speed and step length, Sato and colleagues report March 30 in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
We have constructed an insect–computer hybrid legged robot using a living beetle (Mecynorrhina torquata; Coleoptera). The protraction/retraction and levation/depression motions in both forelegs of the beetle were elicited by electrically stimulating eight corresponding leg muscles via eight pairs of implanted electrodes. To perform a defined walking gait (e.g. gallop), different muscles were individually stimulated in a predefined sequence using a microcontroller. Different walking gaits were performed by reordering the applied stimulation signals (i.e. applying different sequences). By varying the duration of the stimulation sequences, we successfully controlled the step frequency and hence the beetle's walking speed. To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first demonstration of living insect locomotion control with a user-adjustable walking gait, step length and walking speed.
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Another team of engineers seeks to enslave insects with cyborg technology to do the bidding of humans:
A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis is looking to capitalize on the sense of smell in locusts to create new biorobotic sensing systems that could be used in homeland security applications.
Baranidharan Raman, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has received a three-year, $750,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to use the highly sensitive locust olfactory system as the basis to develop a bio-hybrid nose. Joining Raman in the research are engineering colleagues Srikanth Singamaneni, associate professor of materials science, and Shantanu Chakrabartty, professor of computer science & engineering.
[...] For several years and with prior funding from the ONR, Raman has been studying how sensory signals are received and processed in relatively simple brains of locusts. He and his team have found that odors prompt dynamic neural activity in the brain that allow the locust to correctly identify a particular odor, even with other odors present. In other research, his team also has found that locusts trained to recognize certain odors can do so even when the trained odor was presented in complex situations, such as overlapping with other scents or in different background conditions.
"Why reinvent the wheel? Why not take advantage of the biological solution?" Raman said. "That is the philosophy here. Even the state-of-the-art miniaturized chemical sensing devices have a handful of sensors. On the other hand, if you look at the insect antenna, where their chemical sensors are located, there are several hundreds of thousands of sensors and of a variety of types." The team intends to monitor neural activity from the insect brain while they are freely moving and exploring and decode the odorants present in their environment.
Related: Insect–Computer Hybrid Legged Robot with User-Adjustable Speed, Step Length and Walking Gait
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31 2016, @12:53PM
The original submission spins it a little differently.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday March 31 2016, @03:57PM
Vegans who consider people assassins because they eat meat should go berserk about this abomination.
I have nothing against cyber implants, as long as the receiver is OK with that. Clearly, the resulting half-meatbags are an inferior race to the pure aryan bot, they will make good servants.
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(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 31 2016, @05:34PM
Leave it alone, Bot. We all know you're just jealous of their legs!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday March 31 2016, @07:18PM
That reminds me, I have to lubricate my tracks. Else it gets difficult to stealthily... er... do things.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Thursday March 31 2016, @07:34PM
- so, what framework did you employ to run this frankenstein?
- we chose javascript.
- OMG
- I know, I know, but think it through. It really it is the most suited one to interface with a robotic bug.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Thursday March 31 2016, @07:41PM
My favorite part of the article is the video at the end where they seem to be using the beetle as a common breadboard component.