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Robotics

Army’s Cyborg Beetle Takes Flight

SingularityHub Staff
Jan 30, 2009

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Technology review has one of the better reports about the army's success in creating a remote controlled cyborg beetle in collaboration with the University of California - Berkeley.  From the article:

"The beetle's payload consists of an off-the-shelf microprocessor, a radio receiver, and a battery attached to a custom-printed circuit board, along with six electrodes implanted into the animals' optic lobes and flight muscles. Flight commands are wirelessly sent to the beetle via a radio-frequency transmitter that's controlled by a nearby laptop. Oscillating electrical pulses delivered to the beetle's optic lobes trigger takeoff, while a single short pulse ceases flight. Signals sent to the left or right basilar flight muscles make the animal turn right or left, respectively."

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This is far from the first success in remote controlled insects.  Flies and moths are other notable examples of other insects that have been "cyborged".

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