Meet Japan’s cyborg cockroach, coming to a disaster area near you

Researchers have figured out how to mount ‘backpacks’ containing solar cells and electronics on the insects, allowing them to be controlled

In the future, this may allow the bugs to be used as first responders in search of earthquake survivors, going where even tiny robots can’t reach

Reading Time:2 minutes

A researcher connects a solar cell to a “backpack” of electronics mounted on a Madagascar hissing cockroach in a lab in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Japan on September 16. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:25am, 22 Sep 2022Updated: 12:05pm, 22 Sep 2022

If an earthquake strikes in the not too distant future and survivors are trapped under tonnes of rubble, the first responders to locate them could be swarms of cyborg cockroaches.

That is a potential application of a recent breakthrough by Japanese researchers who demonstrated the ability to mount “backpacks” of solar cells and electronics on the bugs and control their motion by remote control.

Kenjiro Fukuda and his team at the Thin-Film Device Laboratory at Japanese research giant Riken developed a flexible solar cell film that is 4 microns thick, about one twenty-fifth the width of a human hair, and can fit on the insect’s abdomen.

The film allows the roach to move freely while the solar cell generates enough power to process and send directional signals into sensory organs on the bug’s hindquarters.

Researcher Yujiro Kakei connects a solar cell to a “backpack” of electronics mounted on a Madagascar hissing cockroach at the Thin-Film Device Laboratory of Japanese research institution Riken in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Japan on September 16. Photo: Reuters

The work builds upon previous insect-control experiments at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and could one day result in cyborg insects that can enter hazardous areas much more efficiently than robots.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x