This cyborg moth has an electrical implant inside of the muscles it uses to control flight.

With the goal of one day making tiny drones out of living insects, a team of engineers created a cyborg moth and watched it spin inside an "insect disco" full of flashing lights.

The researchers didn't actually control the moth during flight. But by using an electrical implant, they say they recorded crucial data on how the cyborg moth coordinates its muscle movements to twirl right and left.

While the insect was in its late pupal stage, still wrapped in a cocoon, the team from North Carolina State University implanted an electrode in the creature's indirect flight muscles, the researchersexplained in a video. By the time the insect developed into an adult moth, enough tissue had grown around the implant that it effectively became part of the insect's body. [Biomimicry: 7 Clever Technologies Inspired by Nature]

Then, the team put the cyborg moth inside a circular "arena" that looks like a miniature disco, complete with panels of LED lights. The moth spun in the same direction as the rotating LED lights, and it was tethered to a platform (almost like a go-go dancer's cage) that was levitated by electromagnets to give the moth freedom to turn left and right.

"By watching how the moth uses its wings to steer while in flight, and matching those movements with their corresponding electromyographic signals, we're getting a much better understanding of how moths maneuver through the air," study researcher Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, said in a statement.

"We're optimistic that this information will help us develop technologies to remotely control the movements of moths in flight," Bozkurt added. The research was detailed last month in the Journal of Visualized Experiments.

If the concept takes flight, cyborg moths could perhaps be used as emergency responders in places too dangerous for humans to enter. These "biobots" could be steered into disaster zones to gather information and look for survivors. Or, these bionic insects could be recruited as tiny spies. Engineers started exploring the possibility of cyborg moths several years ago at a lab at Cornell University, as part of a project known as HI-MEMS (Hybrid Insect Microelectromechanical Systems) for the U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA.

The idea of outfitting animals with artificial parts to do the dirty work of people is hardly new. (It could perhaps be traced back to the Renaissance, when at least one German artillery expert was writing about strapping bombs to cats and sending them behind enemy lines.) More recently, hardy cockroaches have become popular cyborg candidates. In 2012, Bozkurt and his colleagues demonstrated that they could steer a Madagascar hissing cockroach along a set path by sending electrical signals to the insect's antennae and other sensory organs.

欣賞舞池中飛舞的電子飛蛾

這種半機械蛾有它用來控制肌肉內的線路植入物飛行。

最高一天，做微小的寄生蟲了活蟲的目標，一個工程師團隊創造了一個電子人蛾，看著它旋轉的＆QUOT內昆蟲迪斯科＆QUOT;全閃燈.

研究人員實際上并沒有在飛行控制蛾。但是，通過使用電子植入物，他們說，他們記錄了如何在電子人飛蛾協調其肌肉的運動來捻權的關鍵數據，并從北留.

雖然昆蟲在其后期蛹期，還包在繭中，團隊北卡羅來納州立大學植入生物的間接飛行肌，研究人員＆NBSP電極;在視頻解釋。由昆蟲發展成成年蛾的時間，足夠的組織已增長周圍，它有效地成為了昆蟲的身體的一部分的植入物。 [仿生學：7聰明的技術靈感來自于大自然Biomimicry: 7 Clever Technologies Inspired by Nature看起來像一個微型的迪斯科，配有LED燈板。紡絲中的相同的方向上旋轉的LED燈蛾，它被拴在平臺（幾乎像一個復去舞者的籠），將其懸浮由電磁鐵，得到蛾自由左轉和右.

u0026 QUOT;通過觀察如何使用蛾的翅膀，帶領在飛行過程中，和匹配這些運動及其相應的肌電信號，我們得到一個更好的理解飛蛾如何操縱在空中，＆QUOT;研究研究員阿爾珀Bozkurt的，電子與計算機工程助理教授在北卡羅來納州，在一份聲明中.

u0026 QUOT說，我們很樂觀地認為，這些信息將幫助我們開發的技術來遠程控制飛蛾在飛行中，與QUOT的動作; Bozkurt的補充。該研究上個月詳見雜志可視化的實驗.

如果這個概念在飛翔，半機械飛蛾也許可以作為緊急救援人員的地方太危險了人類進入。這些＆QUOT; biobots＆QUOT;可以轉向到災區搜集資料，并尋找幸存者。或者，這些仿生昆蟲可以招募為間諜很小。工程開工前幾年探索電子人飛蛾的可能性在一個實驗室在康奈爾大學，因為被稱為HI-MEMS（混合昆蟲微機電系統）的一個項目，為美國軍方的國防高級研究計劃局，或DARPA .

一部分舾裝動物人工部分做的人臟活的想法是什么新鮮事。 （這也許可以追溯到文藝復興時期，當至少一個德軍炮兵專家一直在寫關于魁梧炸彈貓，把他們敵后。）最近，頑強的蟑螂已成為流行的電子人的候選人。 2012年，Bozkurt的和他的同事證明，他們可以通過發送電信號到昆蟲的觸角和其他感官引導沿著一組路徑馬達加斯加發聲蟑螂.