The cockroach has long been known as one of the toughest insects, supposedly being able to survive even a nuclear disaster.
It's no wonder, then, that a team of scientists decided to use the cockroach to carry out missions for finding survivors in disaster zones.
The team members successfully implanted live cockroaches with electrodes that stimulate certain nerves in the insects antennae, allowing the scientists to control the insect using a remote.
The cockroaches carry a small battery-powered controller that stimulates the roaches antennae, with researchers from Texas A&M University having found that they can tap into a bundle of nerve cells called the proganglion to better control the insect.
In fact, these cyborg roaches are better for disaster response than any other small-scale robots that exist today. They could ideally be used to find survivors in places that humans could otherwise not go, such as somewhere with nuclear radiation.
This isn't the first time that scientists have been able to combine technology with animals.
Scientists have previously been able to connect radio transmitters to a rat's brain to transmit its brainwaves to the scientists in disaster situations. This is because rats have a very sensitive sense of smell and are much smaller than scent dogs. The rats are essentially trained to hone in on humans, after which the radio transmits the fact that the rat has discovered a smell that it recognizes.
"When a dog is sniffing a bomb, he makes a unique movement that the handler recognises," said John Chapin who is a neuroscientist who collaborated on the project. "Instead of the rat making a conditioned response, we pick up the response immediately from the brain."
It's not always about implanting technology into an animal, however. Sometimes, it's about implanting parts of an animal into technology. Scientists have been able to use a moth's head and brain that they got to continue functioning after its death, with the antennae receiving scent information and transmitting that information to the brain, which then was used to control the robot that the brain was attached to.
The future of cyborg technology is sure to be interesting. While many scientists are working to create technology designed for disaster relief, there are a number of other applications for cyborg technology that could be employed, such as using cyborg sea creatures to understand more about the depths of the ocean, or cyborg birds to be able to scope out enemy lines.
Despite this, there are many ethical concerns when it comes to this type of technology that will likely slow, and for good reason, what scientists do while repercussions are considered.
