Bizarre Moment Creepy Cyborg Cockroaches Come to Life
A University of Queensland student, Lachlan Fitzgerald, has created a new breed of cyborg cockroaches that can be controlled using miniature circuit board backpacks. The incredible creatures are able to navigate through complex terrains with ease, thanks to the electrical pulses sent to their antennae.
The research aims to create a machine search and rescue team, part-living, part-machine, that can locate survivors in disaster situations and deliver lifesaving drugs to them. The hope is that these machines will be able to help in search and rescue operations after disasters such as earthquakes or bombings.
The cyborg cockroaches are controlled using a backpack-like device that sends electrical pulses to the insect’s antennae. This allows the user to control the movements of the cockroach, making them agile and able to climb over obstacles.
Lachlan believes that these machine search and rescue workers have the potential to save lives in urban disaster situations and outweighs any kind of hesitancy towards the field. The research is still in its early stages, but experts are hoping to refine the work to make it practical for real-world use.
This isn’t the only country working on these robot animals. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have also demonstrated how they can command and direct the creatures. They tested their design by mounting tiny computers onto each of the 20 critters in Madagascar and controlled the swarm simultaneously, making it move up a sandy slope.
However, the cockroaches are still able to overpower the commands and choose their own way around an obstacle. According to research conducted by the Singaporean researchers, a cockroach leader was seen to emerge in the group during testing, showing that the insects have a natural ability to communicate and work together.
It’s an incredible and unsettling sight to see these creatures come to life, but the potential benefits of these cyborg cockroaches could be life-changing.