And now, from the land that brought you Godzilla… robot roaches! Guess again if you think this is some sort of morphin’ power toy or sci-fi flick. Robot roaches are live cockroaches that carry surgically implanted “backpacks.” The electronic packs allow scientists to control their movements with a remote (imagine being able to switch on a cockroach and your VCR at the same time!).
Why does the world need a robot-controlled roach? Researchers at Tokyo University in Japan started the robo-roach project because they think remote-control bugs could be used for all sorts of sensitive work.
“Insects can do many things that people can’t,” said assistant professor Isao Shimoyama, head of Tokyo University’s bio-robot research team. “The potential applications of this work for mankind could be immense.”
Let’s say rescuers have to search through rubble for earthquake victims. A robot roach would be small enough to get the job done and strong enough to carry a mini-camera on its back. Roaches can lift 20 times their own weight!
For similar reasons, researchers say camera-carrying cockroaches would also be ideal for spy missions. Maybe the CIA could be renamed the Cockroach Intelligence Agency. Wacky as spy-roaches might sound, the Japanese government awarded $5 million to Shimoyama’s team for the research project. The team breeds and uses only American roaches, because they’re bigger and hardier than most other species.
Researchers anesthetize the roaches and remove their wings and antennae. Where the antennae used to be, backpacks with pulse-emitting electrodes are fitted. With a remote, researchers then send signals to the backpacks, which stimulate the electrodes and make the roach turn left or right, scamper forward or spring backward. The device isn’t perfect yet, and over time the roaches become less sensitive to the pulses. But a backpack-fitted roach can survive for months – long enough to get some tough jobs done.
TO KNOW ‘EM IS TO LOVE ‘EM?
-Cockroaches can run up to three miles an hour (that’s without a remote).
-A cockroach can live for a week without its head! The only reason the roach dies is that without its mouth, it can’t drink water and dies of thirst.
-The world’s largest cockroach lives in South America and is 6 inches long, with a 1-foot wingspan!
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For more roach facts, check out www.nj.com/yucky/facts.
