Small robots and drones have increasingly been used to help respond to disasters, reaching locations that are too hard or too dangerous to send humans, such as collapsed buildings. Many of these efforts have been focused on search and rescue. But new research shows how bugs—with their ability to crawl through even narrower gaps in rubbled—outfitted with electrodes could be used as the next generation of first responders.
\n\nA research team from the University of Queensland (UQ) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have developed the “Paraborg” to not only help with searching for victims, but also administer first aid. While the idea of receiving medical care from a cockroach might be a little skin-crawling, the new cyborg bug could one day help buy human rescuers valuable time in a disaster zone.
\n\n“Cyborg insects have been designed for ‘search and explore’ missions for the past couple of decades,” Tan Vo Doan, a bio-robotics researcher at UQ, says in a press release. “We wanted to take the next step.”
\n\nThe team relied on a giant burrowing cockroach that inhabits northern Queensland to develop the Paraborg, which they documented in a recent paper published the journal Advanced Science. The armored…
Original source: https://www.wired.com/