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Technology

Watch a swarm of cyborg cockroaches controlled by computers

Remote-controlled cockroaches with computers mounted on their backs can move as a swarm towards a target location, and could be used for search missions

By Matthew Sparkes

16 April 2024

The cyborg cockroaches being tested on desert-like terrain

Yang Bai, et al. (2024)

A swarm of remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches can navigate to a target location while avoiding obstacles and each other. Researchers say such swarms could be contained inside large robots and released on cue to do jobs that would take too long for a single machine, such as taking sensor readings or hunting for specific objects.

Hirotaka Sato at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and his colleagues have previously demonstrated that a Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa) can be controlled by a computer and steered…

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