Recent research, funded by the United States Navy, is aimed at turning locusts into specially enhanced cyborg beings that will be able to detect and sniff out explosives and bombs. The research is being conducted at Saint Louis’ Washington University and the results, thus far, have been nothing short of amazing.
The Office of Naval Research had given a grant of $750,000 to a team of researchers to come up with the special cyborg grasshoppers. The hope is that, since they are so small, they will be able to penetrate into places that explosives detecting robots and dogs simply can’t get to.
Lead author on the research study is Baranidharan Raman and he has been studying locusts for many years and discovered that they have an extremely acute sense of smell. Not only that, but they can be trained to detect certain smells. He believes the grasshoppers will be much more effective at bomb detection than robots due to their antennae that allows them to pick up hundreds of senses all at once. Regardless of the other odors they detect, they will still go to the ones they have been trained to find.
The research engineers on the project intend to put an electronic implant directly into the brain of the locusts so that they can over ride the sensors in the insect’s antennae. The electrode will be sending back data to the scientists so that they can make any adjustments they need to as they go along.
The researchers have also been constructing a tiny locust sized backpack with a transmitter and LED lights that will indicate if there are any explosives or bombs in the area that the locust is happening to be checking out. In addition, the engineers will be placing tattoos on the locusts’ wings. The tats will be made of silk that will be biologically compatible with the locusts’ skin and wings and these will be able to generate heat by converting the light around itself.
There will also be a laser attached to the backpack that will allow a controller to move the insect in a certain direction much as a character in a video game. In essence, this research team will have created a living cyborg drone.
PHOTO CREDIT: Barandharan Raman