If you think that entities such as the Phalanx in the X-Men series, or the Borg from Star Trek are uber cool due to their bionic enhancements, perhaps we have taken an extremely small step in such a direction. Researchers over at NC State are currently working on developing cyborg moth biobots. In other words, researchers are using live moths whose flight muscles are controlled using electrical impulses remotely. In other words, one is able to control the direction of an actual moth, and I am quite sure that the military as well as intelligence agencies would be more than curious to see a fully working model being in action on the field.
Researchers of these cyborg moths claim that the main objective of developing such technology would be to utilize them in an emergency response situation, and hopefully, this would mean that the moths will not end up getting smashed by a moving car’s windshield, or to have it fly straight into a window at night, or fry itself as you want to fly away from a flame, but its inner nature struggles to follow the command issued from “headquarters”.
Dr. Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, shared, “In the big picture, we want to know whether we can control the movement of moths for use in applications such as search and rescue operations. The idea would be to attach sensors to moths in order to create a flexible, aerial sensor network that can identify survivors or public health hazards in the wake of a disaster.”
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