Australian scientists develop cyborg cockroaches for rescue missions

A swarm of giant cockroaches delivering medicine to a victim trapped in the rubble of a building may sound like a scene from a horror movie. But that's exactly what a group of Australian scientists are doing, who have developed cyborg cockroaches equipped to perform rescue tasks.

Named "paraborgs", the insects were created by researchers at the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales. They carry backpacks with miniature injection devices and cameras, and the idea is that they can provide basic medical assistance to victims of earthquakes and landslides before rescue teams arrive.

How the cyborg body works

The basis of the project is the North Queensland giant burrowing cockroach, considered the heaviest species of cockroach in the world. It is there that the researchers install the backpacks with the syringe cylinders and the cameras that will monitor the environment.

To transform the insect into a controllable "cyborg", the team implants an electrode into its nervous system.

"Once the electrode is implanted in the insect, we can apply a small electrical signal to activate or stimulate the nervous system so that it can respond to our command, explains Thang Vo-Doan, a biorobotics engineer at the University of Queensland.

In practice, this electrical signal allows researchers to guide the cockroach's movements from a distance, directing it to specific points in a destroyed environment.

Why cockroaches and not robots

The choice for real insects, and not robots, has a direct explanation: no machine developed so far has been able to reproduce the combination of agility, resistance and low energy consumption of cockroaches.

Vo-Doan highlights that the insect's natural structure is what makes it useful in disaster scenarios.

“They can walk and run on complex terrain, climb walls or stand upside down. This is extremely useful in search and rescue scenarios in unstructured environments. Therefore, I believe that, due to their natural structure and capacity, they would be suitable for certain rescue scenarios, and also because of their flexibility, agility and high adaptability", explains Von-Doan.

This mobility is precisely what machines lack in narrow spaces, full of debris and irregular obstacles, a typical situation after the collapse of a structure.

The study describing the project points out that more tests are still needed before the paraborgs can be used in real operations. Among the points that the team lists as challenges are locomotion in complex terrain, the loss of communication signal within collapsed structures and the safety of the injection mechanism itself, which needs to work reliably without injuring the victim.

These technical obstacles still separate the technology from the moment when it could actually be incorporated into search and rescue operations.