In Japan, researchers have been thinking for years about technologies that would make it possible to search areas that are difficult for humans to access, and in particular the rubble of a building after an earthquake, which is frequent on the archipelago. Scientists have thus imagined mini-robots. But some believe that now the right solution may be remote-controlled insects. These are real insects to which we could therefore give orders from a distance. We are no longer talking here about a robot but about “bio-bot”, biological robots.
The idea comes from a team of researchers from the Riken Institute in Tokyo. Very quickly, they realized the limits of the tiny robots that we could possibly use to go and search rubble or landslides. These robots have a battery problem and therefore autonomy. They have to be supplied with a lot of electricity for them to travel for a long time and the capacities of the batteries or cells quickly become a problem. They therefore looked at insects, which themselves move naturally. It therefore simply takes energy to drive it remotely.
Because scientists now know how to give simple orders to certain large insects. With slight electrical impulses to their nervous system, they manage to change the direction of their movements. The Riken Institute team thus works with large cockroaches from Madagascar. And They are perfect, according to them: they cannot fly and are more than six centimeters long. They can therefore take a tiny exploration backpack with everything they need to set off on an adventure.
On their backs, scientists have installed ultra-thin and flexible photovoltaic cells. It looks a bit like a piece of tape, except it turns light energy into electricity, which powers the little control station on the cockroach’s head. There is a miniaturized bluetooth receiver to receive orders and a small device to send electrical orders to the legs of the insect. An impulse on the remote control and automatically it starts to change direction.
This cockroach-robot gives, for the moment, all the satisfactions in the laboratories of the Riken institute. Before sending him to the field, the researchers still want to miniaturize his backpack to add useful equipment during excavations. They think in particular of a tiny camera or a microphone to possibly spot the cries of humans stuck under the debris. It is when it is perfectly equipped with all these options that this bio-bot will be able to support rescuers during major disasters.