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DannyB [soylentnews.org] writes:

Ars Technica:
Researchers make cyborg cockroaches that carry their own power packs [arstechnica.com]

Solar cell and a battery can keep the cyborg's electronics running for weeks.

Have you ever thought you’d be seeing a cyborg cockroach that runs on solar power and carries a backpack that looks like an electric circuit? A team of researchers at Japan’s RIKEN research institute has turned a regular Madagascar hissing cockroach into a real cyborg insect by connecting a lithium battery, a solar cell, multiple wires, and a tiny electronic circuit. The cyborg can be controlled using Bluetooth signals, and the researchers suggest that, in the future, such robo-bugs could be employed for search-and-rescue missions.

The researchers refer to their cyborg as an insect-computer hybrid system, and it incorporates a living insect as a platform [arstechnica.com] and a mini-electronic system as its controller. Basically, it’s a biobot that can be controlled like a robot, but it has the power to explore and navigate a complex environment with the proficiency of an insect. [....]

Whenever the researchers want the cockroach to move, they send a Bluetooth signal to the circuit board, which transmits electric current to the legs via the wires. [....]

[....] other scientists proposed additional types of biorobots ranging from moth robots to cyborg beetles. However, most of these cyborg insects lack energy-harvesting devices on their body because the area and load of the harvesting device considerably impair their mobility. So adding a suitable energy-harvesting device (the solar cell) for recharging the electronic controlling unit on a cyborg insect has been one of the main achievements of their research. [....]

Forget search and rescue. Imagine a data center or giant brain designed to be filled with these for servicing.

Original Submission