Cyborg Cockroaches as emergency responders? What's next, Spider SWAT?
35 replies, posted
[quote]Researchers say they've figured out a way to create cyborg, remote-controlled cockroaches, hoping one day the resilient creatures could be steered into disaster zones to gather information and look for survivors.
Video footage from the experiments at North Carolina State University shows the part-robot roaches being directed along a curving path via remote control. The researchers say they attached a lightweight chip with a wireless receiver and transmitter onto Madagascar hissing cockroaches and wired a microcontroller to the insects' antennae and cerci — the sensory organs on the bug's abdomen that cause it to run away from danger.
With electrical signals, the researchers stimulated the cerci to trick the roaches into thinking they needed to scamper away from a predator. Once moving, charges sent to the antennae controlled the insects' direction. A signal sent to one antenna could make a roach think its feeler was touching a wall, sending it in the opposite direction, a statement from NC State explained.
"Building small-scale robots that can perform in such uncertain, dynamic conditions is enormously difficult. We decided to use biobotic cockroaches in place of robots, as designing robots at that scale is very challenging, and cockroaches are experts at performing in such a hostile environment," NC State researcher Alper Bozkurt said in the statement.
"Ultimately, we think this will allow us to create a mobile web of smart sensors that uses cockroaches to collect and transmit information, such as finding survivors in a building that's been destroyed by an earthquake," Bozkurt added.
The researchers reported the results of their experiments late last month at the annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society in San Diego, Calif.
Other researchers have floated the possibility of technologically enhanced roaches. Scientists at Case Western Reserve University demonstrated how the insects could be outfitted with an implantable biofuel cell powered by a sugar the bugs make from their food. Electricity from such a cell then could be used to power sensors on the insect or to manipulate it by remote control.[/quote]
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/cyborg-cockroaches-may-future-emergency-responders-202431344.html[/url]
Yahoo news has the occasional gem.
Science!
This could be very useful, I'm looking forward to seeing this as a response to future disasters.
[QUOTE=FalconKrunch;37590655][media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=901lYbPmqu4[/media][/QUOTE]
oh god why
they sound like they'd be much more useful if they were self-guided. Reliance on a human operator takes up manpower, and I imagine it'd take a lot longer to find survivors etc through one of these things rather than if you were there yourself.
fuck all your shit I don't even care if I die
I fucking HATE cockroaches
They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video]
cockroach torture :'(
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
Roboroach? I remember that show!
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
What the fuck is this?
Are those semi-controllable roaches?
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
I can't tell if I'm horrified or in awe.
I'd imagine a survivor trapped in some rubble mistakenly squishing one of these.
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
Now we just gotta make em really big and put AA guns on their backs
It'll be awesome
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
That is some fucking Frankenstein mad professor shit right there.
EDIT: Oh nevermind, I see what he's done.
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
I want to make one
Cockroaches aren't self-conscious, are they?
[i] Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to put the book down![/i]
It was Danny's last day till retirement too.
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
It's... it's...
[I]Beautiful[/I]
Cyberpunk is bleeding into reality.
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
I guess it sorta makes sense to see this in the related videos...
[video=youtube;goYQE00qkBA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goYQE00qkBA[/video]
[QUOTE=Richy19;37590938]They make it sound like this is something new.
[video=youtube;5Rp4V3Sj5jE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rp4V3Sj5jE[/video][/QUOTE]
Now if only you could also control if they're going forward or backwards.
[QUOTE=Mr. Smartass;37599750]I want to make one
Cockroaches aren't self-conscious, are they?[/QUOTE]
Yes they are, they have very low self esteem.
In seriousness, what do you mean? It's not like they have a hive mind, that shit must be terrible for the cockroach
[QUOTE=Jimbojib;37601648]In seriousness, what do you mean? It's not like they have a hive mind, that shit must be terrible for the cockroach[/QUOTE]
IIRC most bugs and spiders - barring some incredibly advanced ones - are incapable of feeling pain. at the most, it's probably just confused.
A spider SWAT team would be pretty effective, though. Anyone would give up if several hundred spiders came pouring into the room at once.
[QUOTE=FloaterTWO;37601749]A spider SWAT team would be pretty effective, though. Anyone would give up if several hundred spiders came pouring into the room at once.[/QUOTE]
True, it would be impossible to kill every single spider in a swarm of like 3,000 spiders before they overrun you and your terrorist friends
Genetically modified spiders that have venom that can put you to sleep instantly, thousands of them... it's the best fucking idea ever
[QUOTE=Fatman55;37590759]oh god why[/QUOTE]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL_90r0J120[/media]
Cyborg Cockroaches you say?
[img]http://puu.sh/13zci[/img]
[QUOTE=doomevil;37604971]Cyborg Cockroaches you say?
[img]http://puu.sh/13zci[/img][/QUOTE]
[img]http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060718161423/starwars/images/a/a0/Beetledroid.jpg[/img]
TSST CH TITTIT
TSST CH TITTIT
TSST CH TITTIT
i hated that noise they made every time you told them to do ANYTHING
[QUOTE=Cone;37601728]IIRC most bugs and spiders - barring some incredibly advanced ones - are incapable of feeling pain. at the most, it's probably just confused.[/QUOTE]
if it has a brain it can feel pain
whether it reacts much to it or not is a different thing
Good god.
I [B]HATE[/B] Bugs, or atleast anything that has a fucking compound eye.
still, its a interesting development, I just hope they dont end up using live insects as the final product for these things.
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