Cyborg Insects Could Someday Save Your Life

摘要

Surprisingly, cockroach robots aren't new. Researchers have been exploring bio-robotic platforms for insects for the better part of the past decade. But building robotic systems at such miniature scale isn't easy and the technology seems to work only about half the time. In a paper published at the 9th International IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2019, we report the creation of a microcircuit that allows more reliable and precise control of robotic insect motion. To improve control of the insect, our microcircuit incorporates a multiaxis inertial measurement unit that can detect the roach's six degrees of free motion, i.e., its linear and rotational acceleration, as well as its compass heading, and the ambient temperature surrounding the creature. The latter feature was added because tests have shown that the temperature of the environment in which a roach is moving can affect how and where the insect moves. Roaches, for the record, are more likely to go for walks when it's warm.