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Fuel Cells Powered by Roach Blood May Someday Lead to Useful Network of Cybugs
Brian Heater
Feb 3, 2014
How can science improve on the perfection that is the cockroach? Frankly, most of our ideas boil down to making them less gross. Better still: We could make the buggers work for us.
Back in 2012, researchers from North Carolina detailed a system whereby they could remotely control a cockroach via an embedded chip, forcing the cockroach to move wherever they wanted it to. Now, a team of scientists from Japan’s Osaka University and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has seemingly improved on that work, by figuring out how to power that technology using the roaches’ own blood. Simply put, the bug-mounted fuel cell creates electricity using sugar in the cockroach’s blood, thereby creating a roach-powered fuel source that doesn’t need to be replaced for long periods.
The goal of all this research is a bit more goodhearted than just remote-controlled roach racing, with plans to create a network of sensors to transmit information in dire circumstances. Using robo-roaches, rescue teams could, say, investigate a building after an earthquake by way of the insect-mounted sensors. Flying insects like the roach are resilient and able to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. Now if only we could make them a little less disgusting.
