Scientist-engineers have created solar-powered cyborg-type cockroaches implanted with electronics which enables people to control their movements. It sounds a bit like Robocop but with cockroaches rather than people. Perhaps people will be next and perhaps Robocop will come true. The cockroach has a 3D printed backpack which is a stimulation module and a battery powered by a flexible ultra-thin solar panel which does not hinder movement.
The resultant insect is half-robot, half-cockroach and it is said that they have near limitless stamina. There’s been a long-standing goal of science: to create armies of usable cyborg roaches. I didn’t know that but I can see the advantages and I’ve seen the movies with similar creations 😊.
Dr. Kenjiro Fukuda, the lead scientist on the project from the Riken Cluster for Pioneering Research in Japan said:
“Body-mounted, energy-harvesting devices are critical for expanding the range of activity and functionality of cyborg insects”.
They can control the insect by, for example, passing a current through the left side of the body which disrupts the movement of the legs on that side while leaving the legs on the other side unimpeded. This causes the cockroach to turn.
The difficulty so far has been ensuring that the device can be powered without overloading the creature. “The area and load of the device considerably impair the ability of tiny robots”, said Fukuda but he believes that they have cracked the problem with solar panels that bend into the shape of the cockroach’s body.
They believe that the cyborg cockroach might have a role in search and rescue operations where they can explore rubble inaccessible to others. And they can explore areas that are environmentally too hazardous for humans and other animals.
The report on this project has been published in the journal NPJ Flexible Electronics. The work basically entailed finding the best way to attach a solar cell to the cockroach’s abdomen. The insect had to move as normally as possible and provide power to the device. And also, the cockroach had to be able to right themselves if they ended up on their back.
The solar cells are just 4 µm thick and they decided that the cockroach is barely impeded by its presence. The advantages of a solar panel are obvious namely that they can travel for longer without having to be recharged.
They hope to create a better cyber-roach and therefore this is not the final version. They want to fit a camera and a transmitter. They believe it can be done but the images will be in low resolution and transmission will be slow but they believe adequate for the tasks required.
Ethics
The question I have is whether it is ethical. That may seem like a bizarre question to many people but it is worth asking whether insects have emotions. I decided some time ago that flies feel pain and therefore insects can feel pain but what kind of pain is it? It is probably just responsive reactions to stimuli and which they understand to be dangerous to their survival. But I’m not sure whether they actually feel what we, as humans, describe as pain.
And secondly, do insects have emotions. I think it highly unlikely that they have emotions. Some people think that cockroaches can feel curiosity, excitement et cetera but I doubt that. Cockroaches can act in a way which implies that they are scared but are they simply just responding instinctively. I mean the cockroach does not tell themselves that they are scared and therefore they need to take evasive action. They just respond automatically without emotion but perhaps with some sense of pain or discomfort.
The conclusion that I have to come to is that it is probably ethical to conduct these kind of cyborg-cockroach experiments. However, we don’t know for sure what a cockroach feels or experiences when they have these kind of devices attached to them and plugged into their “brains”.
And if we don’t know for sure what the cockroach is experiencing when humans have converted them into half-robot, half-cockroach, there is a question mark as to whether the process is ethical.
Conclusion: the jury is out! However, Fukuda in response to the ethical question said: “It depends on how much we care for the ethics of insects.” The discussion becomes very philosophical when you ask that kind of question. He appears, however, to be asking whether cockroaches have ethics. This seems to me to be off the mark. It seems to be irrelevant. The only relevancy is whether what we do is ethical and if these sorts of experiments cause discomfort or outright pain then it is dubious as to whether they are ethical.
Below are some more articles on insects.
