Cyborg insects? Until yesterday I would have said it was little more than a cinematic fantasy. Now a research team from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) in Japan appears to have made it all a reality.
According to a study published in Natures (I link it here for all details), Japanese scientists have designed a system to create remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches through a tiny wireless control module. It is a truly ambitious multidisciplinary project, requiring a wide range of knowledge, including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and biology.
The method uses energy from a rechargeable battery connected to a solar cell. “The rechargeable cyborg insect wears an ultra-soft organic solar cell module that does not compromise its basic movement capabilities,” the researchers said.
The breakthrough in a solar cell
The key to the new system seems to be in the energy collection mechanism. The ultra-thin organic solar cell module mounted on these cockroaches, in fact, reaches a power of 17,2 mW. That's more than 50 times greater than current energy-harvesting devices can achieve on similar experiments involving insects.
“The solar module, placed on the back of the insect, is just 0,004 millimeters thick” he says Kenjiro Fukuda, senior researcher at RIKEN.
“Iron man” cockroaches on a mission for man
These “armored” cockroaches are designed for specific tasks: exploring dangerous places, monitoring the environment, participating in rescue operations. To be effective, however, operators must be able to control them for sufficient periods of time: how can this be done, considering the relative life of a battery?
Researchers they decided that the best answer was to equip them with a solar cell capable of ensuring continuous battery charging. A good step forward on a long journey: for some time several research laboratories have been studying how to develop and employ "platoons" of remotely controlled insects. They are already used today “modified” flies for environmental monitoring: the possibility of being able to control them would dramatically increase their potential.
In 2021, the Nanyang Technological University from Singapore implanted electrodes in special sensory organs on the side of cockroaches, which allowed them to be “guided” through a physical connection. The mechanism, still primitive, was comparable to that which allows you to drive a horse: instead of bridles, weak electric discharges. What do the kids say? Creepy?
In 2020 it was the turn of the locusts, with a redesigned olfactory system to reveal bombs or biological weapons.
Little by little (literally, given the little legs of these young men) we are getting closer to "enlisting" insects too.
