When a powerful earthquake struck Tokyo, an entire apartment building collapsed—trapping the Yoshida family beneath the rubble of their ground-floor home. They were unable to move or communicate with the outside world, fearing they might die a slow and agonizing death.

As if the suffocating terror weren’t enough, cockroaches began crawling around—and over—them. What the family didn’t know was that these insects would be their unlikely saviors. Just hours after the building’s collapse, rescue teams reached them—already aware of how many survivors were there and who needed to be evacuated first.

This scenario is still fictional, but it’s edging closer to reality with the development of a new generation of cyborg cockroaches. These are live insects equipped with tiny computer chips, allowing researchers to guide them toward a destination by leveraging their natural agility and mobility. The insects also carry sensors that collect environmental data.

One day, cyborg cockroaches could be used to locate survivors in disaster zones that are too dangerous or inaccessible for humans. They could also be used in agriculture—from pollination to pest control—or even in intelligence operations, transmitting information from behind closed doors.

In this latest breakthrough, researchers from Osaka University in Japan and Diponegoro University in Indonesia mounted the chips on the backs of Madagascar hissing cockroaches to take advantage of their natural climbing and navigation skills, connecting the device directly to the insect’s nervous system. This enables the researchers to set a destination, while leaving the cockroach to determine the most efficient route—navigating around or over obstacles using instincts refined over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. READ MORE

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SOURCE: Ynet News