Cockroaches could be steered remotely for search and rescue missions

Scientists have demonstrated how a live cockroach equipped with a computerised'backpack' could be steered remotely for search and rescue missions. The backpack, created by a team at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, is a small computer chip fitted with an infrared camera, carbon dioxide sensor and a temperature/humidity sensor, among other functions. In lab trials, the team fitted the backpack to a Madagascar hissing cockroach and successfully used it to find humans in a simulated disaster scene. The cockroach fitted with the backpack also had electrodes implanted in its cerci – the protruding appendages on its left and right side. Electrical currents were delivered to the two cerci via the electrodes to induce turning, allowing the scientists to control the direction it moved in.