Radio-Controlled Cyborg Beetles Become Reality

holy_calamity writes "DARPA's plans to create brain chips for insects so they can be steered like an RC plane are bearing fruit. Videos show that a team at Berkeley can use radio signals to tell palm-sized African beetles to take off and land, and to lose altitude and steer left or right when in flight. They had to use the less-than-inconspicuous giant beetles because other species are too weak to take off with the weight of the necessary antenna and brain and muscle electrodes."

Comments

I for one

[Johann Public]

welcome our new remote control beetle overlords!

Re:I for one

[Anonymous Coward]

I am swarmed with the feeling that this will bug a lot of people.

Re:I for one

[tinkertim]

What, no lasers?

Re:I for one

[Fuger]

Didn't you RTFA? Lasers are too heavy due to power requirements. Marshmallow launchers, on the other hand...

Re:I for one

[commodoresloat]

Of course it stings people; this is a war technology and it flies in the face of diplomacy and peace. We should be able to listen to our Beatles records in our VW bugs rather than collecting new weapons like a scarab collects shit. This ticks me off!

Re:I for one

[Mr2cents]

Me too. Any country that spends more on weapons than on education should be called a developing nation.

Re:I for one

[Dystopian Rebel]

... look forward to attending the Reunion Concert that we never had.

Re:I for one

[Digital Vomit]

Patience, grasshopper.

Oh...I've said too much...

Re:I for one

[Gravitron 5000]

Why cant we do this to politicos and lawyers then?

For politicos, it's because they would need a brain to attach the electrodes to.

Smaller, smaller, smaller...

[Alwin Henseler]

FTS:

"They had to use the less-than-inconspicuous giant beetles because other species are too weak to take off with the weight of the necessary antenna and brain and muscle electrodes."

So, as technology advances: smaller electronics, radio parts, electromechanical components, power source -> smaller state-of-the-art RC toy. How long until you can have your own, remote-controlled army of fruit flies? 5 years? 10? 20?

Name

[Anonymous Coward]

Large? For Beetles.
Benevolent? Probably not.
Cyborg? Check.
I suggest we call these the Big Bad Beetleborgs.

Yo dawg, I heard you like flying beetles...

[Anonymous Coward]

... so I put a, oh fuck it.

Re:Yo dawg, I heard you like flying beetles...

[Coren22]

I like how this is marked +1 informative. should be funny, but oh well.

FINALLY.

[straponego]

At last we can breathe a little easier, secure in the knowledge that flying cockroaches are watching over us at all times.

Sweet, but needs a lot of work still

[Fuger]

This is really cool, but there seem to be some serious limitations. (Yes, I know that's kind of the definition of "prototype.")

"I'm sceptical about their ability to do surveillance for the following reason: no one has solved the power issue."

If you can't monitor what they're doing without being in the same room, then the range is very small. On the other hand, if this could be scaled up to larger animals, perhaps the power would cease to be an issue. However, it does seem like the relative lack of sophistication present in these insects is what allows this control, in part.

"It's not entirely clear how much control a beetle has over its own flight," Hedrick says. "If you've ever seen a beetle flying in the wild, they're not the most graceful insects."

Still, if they can get the surveillance issue figured out, this could represent a significant advance is Search and Rescue -- use insects or small animals to access places that humans can't (collapsed buildings, landslides, etc.)

Re:Sweet, but needs a lot of work still

[JimboFBX]

What is amazing if you think about it is how far and fast insects can go with so little energy consumption. In contrast, a simple little radio...

Re:Sweet, but needs a lot of work still

[GradiusCVK]

if this could be scaled up to larger animals, perhaps the power would cease to be an issue

I say we strap a diesel generator and a surveillance suite on an elephant. It's my understanding that even if somebody notices him in the room, they'll still act like they don't.

I wonder...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

If this project will turn out better than "Acoustic Kitty" did...

We've always wanted to be a fly on the wall; but having your secret spy weapon get eaten by an insectivorous plant would be pretty embarrassing.

Re:5th Element anyone?

[JimboFBX]

Are you on a "The 5th Element" scavenger hunt or something? ;)

Who knows?

[Tibia1]

Maybe these things will be moving by themselves soon...

Old news

[Sepiraph]

The video was posted on March 07, 2008.

beetles...

[fireball84513]

beetles really creep me out, let me know when i can get a brain chip thingy for my dog so he will stop taking a shit on the grass and instead dump his load in the sandbox like hes supposed to

Finally!

[superdave80]

Radio-Controlled Cyborg Beetles Become Reality

Well, it's about damn time. You know how long I've been waiting for this day?

/wipes away a single tear

Re:Shame this is not genetic engineering

[martin-boundary]

Gah, then we have to flight bugs in space, eww.

So, you don't want citizenship, do you?

Too bad this technology only works

[chrismiceli]

in Africa. Where else will giant African beatles blend in?!

Prior Art

[DreamsAreOkToo]

This was first done in the 5th Element when Zorg's assistant spies on the president. Obviously, according to IP law, DARPA owes the creators of the 5th Element $500 Trillion (in standard RIAA dollars).

Improvization and Military use

[BhaKi]

It is only a matter of time before the US uses these robotic bees to spy on "evil" nations' activities.
I just had an interesting thought. If the same research happened in Iran or N. Korea, then the western media would have, by now, successfully crafted false stories like "Iran prepares robotic spies for spying on US". It is very sad that we are not seeing stories like "US preparing to dispatch robotic bees to all evil parts of the world."