EALING: Robot developers have been making robots that can be used in search and rescue operations and scientists have been mapping them based on animal designs. Today, a new cyborg was introduced and it was based on a beetle.
The boffins showed off their creation, the literal fly bugs that take off, turn and hover. These instructions can be completed via a wireless remote control.
To understand how it work, the researchers attached wireless controllers onto the beetles to investigate the function of a muscle, called the “coleopteran third axillary sclerite (3Ax) muscle”.
This muscle function is known to be the reason why beetles can fold their wings.
During their research, the scientists found out that the 3Ax muscle of a beetle is also responsible for their steering while flying.
According to Berkeley electrical engineering associate professor Michel Maharbiz, it is important to get the radio/computer combo small enough that the beetles could fly untethered. If there is a wire attached to their wing, it can interfere with their flying.
To make the six-centimetre, eight gram cyborg beetles, the team put together an off-the-shelf microcontroller with built-in wireless transceiver. They attached six electrodes to the Mecynorrina torgata’s optic lobe and flight muscles.
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