JAPANESE SCIENTISTS CREATING ROBOT-INSECTS
The Telegraph
July 15, 2009
Original LinkJapanese scientists are attempting to create robot-insects that could eventually help police fight crime and aid rescue teams searching for earthquake survivors.
Ryohei Kanzaki, a professor at Tokyo University's Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology, has studied insect brains for three decades and become a pioneer in the field of insect-machine hybrids.
His ultimate goal is to understand human brains and restore connections damaged by diseases and accidents -- but to get there he has taken a very close look at insects' "micro-brains".
Insects' tiny brains can control complex aerobatics such as catching another bug while flying, proof that they are "an excellent bundle of software" finely honed by hundreds of millions of years of evolution, he said.
For example, male silkmoths can track down females from half a mile away by sensing their smell.
Mr Kanzaki hopes to artificially recreate insect brains.
"Supposing a brain is a jigsaw-puzzle picture, we would be able to reproduce the whole picture if we knew how each piece is shaped and where it should go," he said.
"It will be possible to recreate an insect brain with electronic circuits in the future. This would lead to controlling a real brain by modifying its circuits," he said.
Mr Kanzaki's team has already made some progress.
In an example of 'rewriting' insect brain circuits, the team succeeded in genetically modifying a male silkmoth so that it reacts to light instead of odour, or to the odour of a different kind of moth.
Such modifications could pave the way to creating a robo-bug which could in future sense illegal drugs several kilometres away, as well as landmines, people buried under rubble, or toxic gas, the professor said.
In one experiment, a live male moth was strapped onto what looks like a battery-driven toy car, its back glued securely to the frame while its legs move across a free-spinning ball.
Researchers motivate the insect to turn left or right by using female odour.
The team found that the moth can steer the car and quickly adapt to changes in the way the vehicle operates -- for example by introducing a steering bias to the left or right similar to the effect of a flat tyre.