The World’s First Cyborg Insect Factory Is Creating a Lot of Buzz

We have seen our fair share of cyborg insects here at Hackster News in the past. While these creepy-crawlies may make some people want to grab the nearest shoe, when bugs are equipped with technology, they are hardly pests to us any longer. Previous research has demonstrated that these cyborg insects can, for instance, quickly locate survivors after natural disasters, and they can act with a speed and efficiency that is unheard of in robots of a similar scale.

However, a small number of insects is not likely to be very useful in a major search and rescue operation. Swarms of these cyborgs will be needed for real-world applications. But equipping large numbers of insects with the necessary hardware components is not entirely practical using today’s methods. Typically, researchers manually glue the main hardware to each insect’s back, and physically attach electrodes to their antennae or other sensory organs. This approach does not scale well, which is one reason why the technology has not seen much of any use outside of research labs.

A group of engineers at Nanyang Technological University has anticipated the coming need for better assembly methods, and they have developed an automated cyborg insect assembly line. It can attach a miniature electronic backpack to a Madagascar hissing cockroach in just 68 seconds, which is about 60 times faster than the traditional manual process. The system combines a robotic arm, computer vision-based site detection, and an insect fixation structure to ensure precise placement of electrodes at the optimal anatomical location.

The system uses a Universal Robots UR3e robotic arm equipped with a RealSense D435 depth camera and a Robotiq Hand-e gripper. The camera scans the insect to locate the optimal implantation site on the intersegmental membrane between the pronotum and mesothorax. After verifying the reference point, the arm grasps the backpack and moves to a predefined position for electrode implantation at a carefully calculated pitch angle that minimizes the risk of collisions with the insect or surrounding structure. The electrodes are inserted, and the arm applies downward force to securely attach the backpack’s branches to the cockroach’s cuticle. Once complete, the system releases the insect and resets for the next assembly.

The backpack houses a lightweight circuit board and electrodes that deliver gentle electrical stimulation to guide the insect’s movements. Unlike conventional robots, these cyborg insects use their own legs for locomotion, which makes them highly efficient at navigating through challenging environments. While building the assembly line, the team also improved the backpack’s power efficiency, reducing the voltage required for stimulation by 25% while maintaining precise control over the insects.

Using their new approach, the researchers have already seen some success outside of the lab. Recently, 10 cyborg insects were deployed in Myanmar with the Singapore Civil Defence Force during Operation Lionheart, following a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake. This small trial was the first real-world humanitarian mission to use insect-robot hybrids. It is hoped that this will be a springboard to bigger and better things for this nascent technology.