This cyborg moth has an electrical implant inside of the muscles it uses to control flight.

With the goal of one day making tiny drones out of living insects, a team of engineers created a cyborg moth and watched it spin inside an "insect disco" full of flashing lights.

The researchers didn't actually control the moth during flight. But by using an electrical implant, they say they recorded crucial data on how the cyborg moth coordinates its muscle movements to twirl right and left.

While the insect was in its late pupal stage, still wrapped in a cocoon, the team from North Carolina State University implanted an electrode in the creature's indirect flight muscles, the researchers explained in a video. By the time the insect developed into an adult moth, enough tissue had grown around the implant that it effectively became part of the insect's body. [Biomimicry: 7 Clever Technologies Inspired by Nature]

Then, the team put the cyborg moth inside a circular "arena" that looks like a miniature disco, complete with panels of LED lights. The moth spun in the same direction as the rotating LED lights, and it was tethered to a platform (almost like a go-go dancer's cage) that was levitated by electromagnets to give the moth freedom to turn left and right.

"By watching how the moth uses its wings to steer while in flight, and matching those movements with their corresponding electromyographic signals, we're getting a much better understanding of how moths maneuver through the air," study researcher Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, said in a statement.

"We're optimistic that this information will help us develop technologies to remotely control the movements of moths in flight," Bozkurt added. The research was detailed last month in the Journal of Visualized Experiments.

If the concept takes flight, cyborg moths could perhaps be used as emergency responders in places too dangerous for humans to enter. These "biobots" could be steered into disaster zones to gather information and look for survivors. Or, these bionic insects could be recruited as tiny spies. Engineers started exploring the possibility of cyborg moths several years ago at a lab at Cornell University, as part of a project known as HI-MEMS (Hybrid Insect Microelectromechanical Systems) for the U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA.

The idea of outfitting animals with artificial parts to do the dirty work of people is hardly new. (It could perhaps be traced back to the Renaissance, when at least one German artillery expert was writing about strapping bombs to cats and sending them behind enemy lines.) More recently, hardy cockroaches have become popular cyborg candidates. In 2012, Bozkurt and his colleagues demonstrated that they could steer a Madagascar hissing cockroach along a set path by sending electrical signals to the insect's antennae and other sensory organs.

欣赏舞池中飞舞的电子飞蛾

这种半机械蛾有它用来控制肌肉内的线路植入物飞行。

最高一天，做微小的寄生虫了活虫的目标，一个工程师团队创造了一个电子人蛾，看着它旋转的＆QUOT内昆虫迪斯科＆QUOT;全闪灯.

研究人员实际上并没有在飞行控制蛾。但是，通过使用电子植入物，他们说，他们记录了如何在电子人飞蛾协调其肌肉的运动来捻权的关键数据，并从北留.

虽然昆虫在其后期蛹期，还包在茧中，团队北卡罗来纳州立大学植入生物的间接飞行肌，研究人员＆NBSP电极;在视频解释。由昆虫发展成成年蛾的时间，足够的组织已增长周围，它有效地成为了昆虫的身体的一部分的植入物。 [仿生学：7聪明的技术灵感来自于大自然Biomimicry: 7 Clever Technologies Inspired by Nature看起来像一个微型的迪斯科，配有LED灯板。纺丝中的相同的方向上旋转的LED灯蛾，它被拴在平台（几乎像一个复去舞者的笼），将其悬浮由电磁铁，得到蛾自由左转和右.

u0026 QUOT;通过观察如何使用蛾的翅膀，带领在飞行过程中，和匹配这些运动及其相应的肌电信号，我们得到一个更好的理解飞蛾如何操纵在空中，＆QUOT;研究研究员阿尔珀Bozkurt的，电子与计算机工程助理教授在北卡罗来纳州，在一份声明中.

u0026 QUOT说，我们很乐观地认为，这些信息将帮助我们开发的技术来远程控制飞蛾在飞行中，与QUOT的动作; Bozkurt的补充。该研究上个月详见杂志可视化的实验.

如果这个概念在飞翔，半机械飞蛾也许可以作为紧急救援人员的地方太危险了人类进入。这些＆QUOT; biobots＆QUOT;可以转向到灾区搜集资料，并寻找幸存者。或者，这些仿生昆虫可以招募为间谍很小。工程开工前几年探索电子人飞蛾的可能性在一个实验室在康奈尔大学，因为被称为HI-MEMS（混合昆虫微机电系统）的一个项目，为美国军方的国防高级研究计划局，或DARPA .

一部分舾装动物人工部分做的人脏活的想法是什么新鲜事。 （这也许可以追溯到文艺复兴时期，当至少一个德军炮兵专家一直在写关于魁梧炸弹猫，把他们敌后。）最近，顽强的蟑螂已成为流行的电子人的候选人。 2012年，Bozkurt的和他的同事证明，他们可以通过发送电信号到昆虫的触角和其他感官引导沿着一组路径马达加斯加发声蟑螂.