Photo credited to Popular Mechanics...........................................................................................................................
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Think twice about the "animals" around you. They just might be watching you...
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Buzz Buzz Buzz... AeroVironment's robot hummingbird is gaining lots of ground in tech community through its ingenious design. AV's DARPA-funded engineering team mastered the mechanics of the hummingbird wing and applied it to their product, avoiding the use of thrusters and propellers that most UAVs use today. It can hover quite well in conditions of up to 5 miles per hour side wind, max speed clocks at 11 miles/hour, and the little robot able to be controlled by a pilot watching just the live feed from 1 tiny camera embedded in the "hummingbird"'s throat. No, the head can't turn. The eyes aren't functioning.
On another note, NSF-backed electrical engineering researchers at North Carolina State University have accomplished implementing videogame controls in cockroaches. They start by wiring the antennae and cerci (sensory organ located on abdomen). The trick is to trick the cockroach's senses. Small charges sent through the antenna wiring tell the roach it has hit a barrier and the roach scurries in the opposite direction. Charges sent to the cerci tells the roach there was a change in airflow -- meaning a predator has approached. The roach immediately runs away.
The researchers currently use the XBox's Kinect platform to control the bugs. The cockroach project is only the start of the new biobot field. Teams are starting to work on moths and other insects as well. The results are expanded on in the paper"Kinect-based System for Automated Control of Terrestrial Insect Biobots," which was presented at the Remote Controlled Insect Biobots Minisymposium at the 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society last July 4 in Osaka, Japan.
The company, Backyard Brains, has developed a little robo-roach kit that kids can get for about $100. The experience is geared to teach the kids about neuroscience, with a little tech magic. The kids must perform a little surgery on the roaches, first anesthetizing the roach using an ice bath. The roach can be controlled through the little backpack and sensors the kids attach, which in turn, is under control from a phone via Bluetooth.
Practical uses projected for these little critters, whether they are actually alive or not, involve search and rescue missions, inconspicuous searches, regular surveillance, and pet toys. Who knows what's next?
Alper Bozkurt / North Carolina State University
