Cyborg roaches for disaster relief? Singapore team’s 68-second feat says yes

Scientists in Singapore have industrialised the production of remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches that one day could form a tiny army suitable for disaster search missions.

Last month, researchers led by Hirotaka Sato at Nanyang Technological University published their previously preprinted study describing a system for the mass production of mechanical cockroaches.

The July 28 article in Nature Communications said the team had continued with their pioneering concept of an “insect robot factory”.

They had improved the control of the robotic cockroach, increasing its turning ability from 70 degrees to over 80 degrees, and also verified this precise control through a series of experiments, it said.

The first author of the paper graduated from the Harbin Institute of Technology.

Can swarms of cyborg cockroaches save lives?

Can swarms of cyborg cockroaches save lives?

A reviewer of the article said the paper demonstrated “meaningful work on insect-computer hybrid robots, which will reduce mass production time and cost for practical applications”.