Boys, Scientists have discovered a device to Scare Out your Girl Friend!

Yes, you read it right! No, this is not magic, it’s Science!

Remote-Controlled Cockroaches! ROACH BIOBOT! Rare chance to scare out your girl!

Jokes apart! Much to the annoyance of Girls (and few Boys) all around the Globe, Cockroaches are amazingly tough, and they can squeeze into remarkably small spaces, climb up and out swiftly.

So, a Team of Scientists from North Carolina State University  have made a biobot Cockroach.They are working on a sensor-equipped real cockroach that is remotely controlled by a human operator.

The project is being led by Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical engineering. His team has placed cockroaches with backpacks containing an inexpensive, lightweight, commercially-available chip, along with a wireless receiver and transmitter, and a microcontroller.

How it works?

The Microcontroller, placed on the top, is wired into the cockroach’s antennae and cerci in the abdomen. The cerci, is a natural sensory organ of cockroach that detects air movement in order to warn of possible approaching predators. 

When the cerci are instead stimulated by the microcontroller, the result is the same as it would normally be, the cockroach thinks that something is coming at it from behind, and scuttles forward.

In order to direct forward movement, either one of the antennae are stimulated. Ordinarily, they’re activated when they brush against unyielding objects, letting the cockroach know that it can’t move in that direction. 

In this case, when the stimulation comes not from an object but from a small electrical charge, the insect still reacts by changing course. So, the insect is moved right by giving a small electrical charge to its left antennae and vice versa!

Here is the detailed research paper –“Line FollowingTerrestrial Insect Biobots”

“Our aim was to determine whether we could create a wireless biological interface with cockroaches, which are robust and able to infiltrate small spaces. Ultimately, we think this will allow us to create a mobile web of smart sensors that uses cockroaches to collect and transmit information, such as finding survivors in a building that's been destroyed by an earthquake.” said Alper Bozkurt

So, In the near future, ordinary houseflies, mosquitoes and cockroaches may turn into a Biobot and used for Surveillance !

Thank you Technology, for eating up my privacy, once again!