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Cyborg beetle on the radio
Employees of Berkeley (California), headed by engineer Michael Maharbizom showed how to manage a live beetle flight on the radio, "equipping" insect small set of electronics. As an experimental kind of beetles appeared Mecynorrhina torquata i> or Бронзовки. Large insect weighing 8-10 grams can reach a length of 80 mm and freely carry a load of about 20% of the weight of his body. Scientific work is called & quot; Deciphering the Role of a Coleopteran Steering Muscle via Free Flight Stimulation < / a> & quot; and published in the journal «Current Biology».
The principle of beetle flight control based on electrical stimulation of a muscle in his body - третьего axillary sclerite . Previously, scientists believed that it is designed to fold the wings of an insect when it terminates flight. After experimenting opened another role of this muscle - with the help of her chafer manage their flight on the desired trajectory them. In 2009, the same team of researchers able to get the beetle simpler behavior. He could start flying and just fly up and down. Now, with the help of electrical stimulation of the other pair of muscles, biologists can manage flight beetle on a complex trajectory with high accuracy.
"Equipment" beetle consists of a microcontroller with built-in receiver and transmitter. Electrodes were implanted in optical lobes and the muscles that control the flight. Energy management is taken from the lithium battery to 3.9 V. The weight of all the electronic unit was approximately 1.5 grams. The controller can change the frequency of electrical impulses, so that the degree of tension in the muscles of the insect is changing and it is changing in turn the direction of flight.
The goal of such research is twofold. Besides the obvious details of the anatomy of insects, so researchers are trying to understand how that would allow designing complex insectoid. Rather than create a truly microscopic drones or even cyber insects are much cheaper to perform the implantation of electronic components finished living beetles. They can perform as a peaceful role as well as various military tasks: monitoring or covert intelligence.
Previously with similar ideas were employees of a startup Backyard Brains on Kickstarter. Anyone could buy ready-cyborg cockroach, which can be controlled from the screen of a smartphone as a toy. The pleasure was worth $ 150.
Source: geektimes.ru/post/247366/
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