Australian engineers have turned giant cockroaches into biorobots with syringes and cameras on their backs — according to the authors, it is these “paraborgs” that will be the first to reach people under the rubble, when rescuers still have a way to go closed.
- Backpack weighing a quarter of a cockroach class=»notranslate»>__GTAG8__ The idea sounds like the premise of a horror movie: a swarm of giant insects crawling towards you in the dark. But the authors of the development insist that this nightmare can one day save lives. A team from the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales equipped northern Queensland burrowing cockroaches — the heaviest members of the order in the world, up to 8.5 cm in length — with miniature «backpacks» containing cameras and injection capsules. The development was called “paraborg” — from “paramedic” and “cyborg”. Insects are controlled not with a joystick, but through implanted electrodes. Biorobotics engineer Thang Vo-Doan describes the process casually: first, the cockroach is immobilized and desensitized, then an electrode is implanted, through which a weak signal is sent — it activates the nervous system and forces the insect to move in the desired direction at the operator’s command. Why not an ordinary robot The logic of the project is simple: a miniature robot capable of squeezing into a gap after a building collapses is extremely difficult and expensive to design, but a cockroach has already solved such a problem over millions of years of evolution. Insects have low energy consumption, excellent maneuverability and endurance, unmatched by mechanical counterparts of comparable size. Hence the logic: do not invent a miniature robotic beetle, but “rent” a ready-made one from nature. By the way, the idea of controlled insect rescuers is not new — over a decade ago, similar experiments with cyborg cockroaches were carried out at the University of North Carolina and Texas A&M University, but there the task was limited to reconnaissance and search for survivors. The Australian team went further: their insects do not just look for victims, but are capable of providing first aid on the spot. How it worked in the laboratory The test scheme was built on a combination of two cockroaches: one is a “scout” with a camera that helps the operator detect the target, the second is a “orderly” carrying a drug ready for remote activation. The researchers published the test results in the journal Advanced Science: insects in 100% of cases reached the specified control points; the overall rate of successful injections was 72%; when approaching the target at a distance of 15 cm, the accuracy of the injection increased to 95%. The system was tested not on living people, but on silicone mannequins and pig skin — standard practice for practicing medical injections in the laboratory. What's next The authors see the technology being used primarily in earthquakes and building collapses, where minutes count, and rescuers’ access to the victim can take hours. In the future, the use of paragods is also being considered for snake bites or severe allergic reactions — where the injection must be given as quickly as possible. Vaugh-Doan is modest but ambitious about the end goal: to collect not just one cockroach, but an entire network of individuals that can penetrate deep into the rubble and find victims faster than today's search methods. Real application, however, is far away. The study directly lists the unsolved problems: the complex terrain of destroyed buildings, the loss of communication signals under layers of concrete and reinforcement, as well as the safety of the injection itself — an accuracy of 72% is not yet the indicator with which one can trust an insect to receive real medical care. A separate issue is ethics: there is no single standard for experiments on insects yet, although the authors emphasize that the cockroaches were kept in comfortable conditions and fed with dried eucalyptus leaves and apples — at least humanism was not forgotten in the project. Sources: reuters.com aol.com nbcnews.com Xrust Paramedic cockroaches: cyborgs capable of delivering medicine to victims were tested in Australia
- Why not an ordinary robot
- How it worked in the laboratory
- What's next
Backpack weighing a quarter of a cockroach class=»notranslate»>__GTAG8__
The idea sounds like the premise of a horror movie: a swarm of giant insects crawling towards you in the dark. But the authors of the development insist that this nightmare can one day save lives. A team from the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales equipped northern Queensland burrowing cockroaches — the heaviest members of the order in the world, up to 8.5 cm in length — with miniature «backpacks» containing cameras and injection capsules. The development was called “paraborg” — from “paramedic” and “cyborg”.
Insects are controlled not with a joystick, but through implanted electrodes. Biorobotics engineer Thang Vo-Doan describes the process casually: first, the cockroach is immobilized and desensitized, then an electrode is implanted, through which a weak signal is sent — it activates the nervous system and forces the insect to move in the desired direction at the operator’s command.
Why not an ordinary robot
The logic of the project is simple: a miniature robot capable of squeezing into a gap after a building collapses is extremely difficult and expensive to design, but a cockroach has already solved such a problem over millions of years of evolution. Insects have low energy consumption, excellent maneuverability and endurance, unmatched by mechanical counterparts of comparable size. Hence the logic: do not invent a miniature robotic beetle, but “rent” a ready-made one from nature.
By the way, the idea of controlled insect rescuers is not new — over a decade ago, similar experiments with cyborg cockroaches were carried out at the University of North Carolina and Texas A&M University, but there the task was limited to reconnaissance and search for survivors. The Australian team went further: their insects do not just look for victims, but are capable of providing first aid on the spot.
How it worked in the laboratory
The test scheme was built on a combination of two cockroaches: one is a “scout” with a camera that helps the operator detect the target, the second is a “orderly” carrying a drug ready for remote activation.
The researchers published the test results in the journal Advanced Science:
- insects in 100% of cases reached the specified control points;
- the overall rate of successful injections was 72%;
- when approaching the target at a distance of 15 cm, the accuracy of the injection increased to 95%.
The system was tested not on living people, but on silicone mannequins and pig skin — standard practice for practicing medical injections in the laboratory.
What's next
The authors see the technology being used primarily in earthquakes and building collapses, where minutes count, and rescuers’ access to the victim can take hours. In the future, the use of paragods is also being considered for snake bites or severe allergic reactions — where the injection must be given as quickly as possible.
Vaugh-Doan is modest but ambitious about the end goal: to collect not just one cockroach, but an entire network of individuals that can penetrate deep into the rubble and find victims faster than today's search methods.
Real application, however, is far away. The study directly lists the unsolved problems: the complex terrain of destroyed buildings, the loss of communication signals under layers of concrete and reinforcement, as well as the safety of the injection itself — an accuracy of 72% is not yet the indicator with which one can trust an insect to receive real medical care. A separate issue is ethics: there is no single standard for experiments on insects yet, although the authors emphasize that the cockroaches were kept in comfortable conditions and fed with dried eucalyptus leaves and apples — at least humanism was not forgotten in the project.
Sources:
reuters.com
aol.com
nbcnews.com
Xrust Paramedic cockroaches: cyborgs capable of delivering medicine to victims were tested in Australia
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