New technology will allow researchers to "map" unknown environments, such as a collapsed building, using cyborg cockroaches.
"We focused on how to map areas where you have little or no precise information on where each biobot is, such as a collapsed building where you can't use GPS technology," Doctor Edgar Lobaton, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University and senior author of a paper on the research, said in a NC University news release.
"One characteristic of biobots is that their movement can be somewhat random," Lobaton says. "We're exploiting that random movement to work in our favor."
The researchers would use a swarm of remotely-controlled cockroaches complete with electronic sensors to explore uncharted territory.
Going with the example of the collapsed building, the swarm would be released to root through the rubble.
The roaches would initially be allowed to move around as they pleased. The biobots would not be able to be tracked by a GPS device, but the electronic sensors would send a signal to researchers whenever the insects encountered one another.
Once the biobots spread throughout the site the researchers would send out a signal that would cause the insects to move to the nearest wall and walk along it in a technique known as "wall following."
The team would continue to repeat the "wall following" signal, collecting information on which biobots were near each other using the electronic sensors.
New software would allow the team to use an algorithm to translate the information from the electronic sensors into a "map" of the site.
"This would give first responders a good idea of the layout in a previously unmapped area," Lobaton said.
The biobots could also allow officials to locate the location of radioactive or chemical weapons if given sensors that could detect those substances.
