The Rundown Robotics: Cyborg roaches become first responders

🪳 Cyborg roaches become first responders
Image source: The University of Queensland
The Rundown: Six months after we covered cyborg cockroaches being turned into reconnaissance scouts, researchers have pushed the idea in a wild direction — giving the insects cameras and injectors to find and treat people trapped in disaster zones.
The details:
University of Queensland engineers have bolted cameras and remote-triggered drug injectors onto giant burrowing cockroaches, producing “paraborgs.”

In tests, the bugs delivered injections 95% of the time when already within 15 cm of a target, while the full navigate-position-inject sequence worked in 72% of trials.

One roach carries the camera, another carries the needle, and a human triggers it; UQ engineer Thang Vo-Doan predicts rescue swarms are 5-10 years off. Researchers said the roaches were anesthetized during electrode and microchip fitting and can live for as long as other roaches once the harnesses are removed.
Why it matters: Cyborg insects have been search-and-explore hardware for two decades, designed to locate the survivor, radio the position, and wait for humans.The bigger leap here is turning cyborg insects into machines that can actually intervene before a human can, though the 72% success rate shows there’s still a long way to go.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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