Robobugs

[JPS]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2007100801459

...camera-toting insects whose nerves have grown into their internal silicon chip so that wranglers can control their activities

Ever had an annoying fly bothering you while you're on the phone? Thats the government anti-terrorist tactics at play

[The Toecutter]

Re: Robobugs

This technology has been around since 2001. Tokyo University made 'remote controlled roaches'. The Associated Press did an article on them then.

It also explains one of my obsessions with roaches: they're so damned cool because people could do this with them. It also makes me feel sorry for the poor buggers; disgusting as they are, they're a lot like humans.

***edit***


I've never looked into this very in-depth and don't know if it is today possible(I suspect it is), but it would be cool as hell to make cyborg Asian Hornets. An entire set of pupae could hypothetically be implanted with control systems that allow the user to control the queen by remote and a series of memory backed microprocessors which would be coded and able to transmit a signal via Bluetooth to every hornet to consider all the hornets as one entity, that you'd be able to fly around(the systems of each hornet would be programmed to follow the queen) and have them sting on command. The systems would communicate with each other to cause the hornets to fly in a synchronized manner(same frequency of wing flaps, ect.) and equidistant from each other, with a crude AI embedded in the systems to allow automatic formation changes as they move through tight spaces. Each bug would have its own serial number, and if a bug loses their signal with the rest of the swarm only then are they considered 'deleted' and the formation changes to automatically adjust to them. All the emanating signals from the bugs would give about a 32 foot radius(range extender systems that are far too heavy for this application can do 28 miles!) that they all needed to stay in without losing communication with the swarm, and an algorithm would be devised to allow the trace of all the signals of the known remaining bugs to be read by each other bug.

-The biggest problem would be cost. These bugs would cost hundreds of dollars each in volume. If they are used to attack someone, many of them will definately be smashed. Many would get smashed or destroyed just flying around due to wear and tear on the insect or the insect suddenly dropping from the air dead.

-Then there's a complex AI needed to allow them to feed. Not all will get fed. Many will die as they are used more and more.

-Calender life. Limited life span(I need to research just how much it is for queens, workers, and drones)

-Good luck getting something like this to meet FCC regulations.

-Retrieval and re-use of the components might be difficult or impossible after the insect dies.

-I don't recall Bluetooth even being miniaturized enough yet to make this feasible.

-Each one would be hand built for the prototype, which might possibly take decades of man hours to build a swarm. It may be outright impossible to 'manufacture' these bugs, which would kill any practical application of them outright.




You could sick them on crowds of people and inject with venom, or set extremely small/light explosive devices to each insect. But then each swarm could cost millions when much more effective damage can be done with a cheaply built IED. At least the swarm would look cool and would be an interesting research project(I don't know of anyone that would dare finance such a thing. Hell, I wouldn't even do it if I were a member of a company and saw such an idea. lol).

It will most likely never be pursued; it would take some wicked programming abilities(Which I don't yet have and probably never will; orders of magnitude more difficult than the most complicated videogames).

This idea is just a concept, not even in the 'design stage', but instead an idea stage, and will probably stay there.