Cyborg beetles allowed researchers to gain insight into the biology of free-flight insects.
A team of scientists strapped computers and wireless radios to the backs of flying beetles, allowing them to steer the insects, the University of California, Berkeley reported. The findings revealed that a muscle known to control the folding of wings also played a crucial role in steering. The researchers were then able to use the new information to help the beetles perform more precise remote-controlled turns.
"This is a demonstration of how tiny electronics can answer interesting, fundamental questions for the larger scientific community," said Michel Maharbiz, an associate professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the study's principal investigator. "Biologists trying to record and study flying insects typically had to do so with the subject tethered. It had been unclear if tethering interfered with the insect's natural flight motions."
The researchers tested the function of the muscles by stimulating it during turns that were more controlled than previous than those performed by previous versions of cyborg. The beetles' backpacks were made of a tiny microcontroller and a built-in wireless receiver and transmitter. Six electrodes were connected to the beetles' optic lobes and flight muscles. During the test flights the signals were transmitted to the backpack once every millisecond, directing the insect which way to turn. The beetles' flights were conducted in an enclosed room and captured with eight 3-D motion-capture cameras.
"In our earlier work using beetles in remote-controlled flight, we showed excellent control of flight initiation and cessation, but relatively crude control of steering during free flight," said Maharbiz. "Our findings about the flight muscle allowed us to demonstrate for the first time a higher level of control of free-flying beetles. It's a great partnership between engineering and science."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Current Biology.
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