R/C Cockroaches - Combine R/C Hobby With Your Love For Cockroaches [Video]

Engineers at the North Carolina State University have combined their love for cockroaches with the R/C electronic circuit to develop 'R/C Cockroaches'. The electrical engineering team attached sensors to pretty-looking Madagascar hissing cockroaches and induced small charges in cockroaches' nervous system to make it believe that something's sneaking up behind and scurry away in desired direction.  The backpack attached to Cockroach consists of a light-wight, low-cost, commercially available chip coupled with a wireless receiver & transmitter. The backpack even contains a  microcontroller that keeps check on the interface between the implanted electrodes and the tissue to avoid direct damage to the nervous system.



The researchers say that their aim was to see whether a wireless, biological interface can be created with cockroaches to develop a mobile web of sensors that can ultimately help in finding survivors destroyed by an earthquake. Building such robots at a small-scale under such uncertain and dynamic condition is very challenging, says  Alper Bozkurt, assistant professor of electrical engineering at NC State who co-authors a paper on the project. He says that cockroaches are perfect for such jobs.

Do check out the video of the project and express your thoughts in comments below.

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