Radio-Controlled Cyborg Beetles: A Radio-Frequency System for Insect Neural Flight Control

Abstract

We present the first report of radio control of a cyborg beetle in free-flight. The microsystem (Figs. 1, 2) consisted of a radio-frequency receiver assembly, a micro battery and a live giant flower beetle platform (Mecynorhina polyphemus or Mecynorhina torquata). The assembly had six electrode stimulators implanted into the left and right optic lobes, brain, posterior pronotum (counter electrode), right and left basalar flight muscles. Initiation and cessation of flight were accomplished by optic lobe stimulation while muscular stimulation of either right or left basalar flight muscles (referenced to the posterior pronotum electrode) elicited left or right turns, respectively. Flight commands were wirelessly transferred to the beetle-mounted system (running BeetleBrain vl.0 code) via an RF transmitter operated by a laptop running custom software (BeetleCo mmander vl.0) through a USB/Serial interface.

Untethered Insect Interfaces

“…In fact, potential pulses applied between two electrodes implanted near the base of the left and right optic lobes could elicit flight initiation and cessation with very high success rates. Implantation into the optic lobe yielded a much higher success rate and did not affect the beetle's ability to steer in free flight 3.2 Systems for Tetherless Insect Flight Control 31 [26,27]. Ten insects initiated flight in response to stimulation, with the median number of stimulation waveforms required to initiate flight being 19 (range 1-59).…”

“…For C. texana, it was observed that progressively shortening the time between positive and negative potential pulses delivered to the area of the brain between the optic lobes led to the ''throttling'' of flight where the beetle's normal 76 Hz wing oscillation was strongly modulated by the 0.1-10 Hz applied stimulus [2,46]. A repeating program of 3 s, 10 Hz, 3.0 V pulse trains followed by a 3 s pause (no stimulus) resulted in alternating periods of higher and lower pitch flight [26,46]. In a similar manner, in M. torquata, brain stimulus at 100 Hz led to depression of flight (see [1]: Figure 4B, tethered flight: Movie S2 in supplementary material, free flight: Movie S3 in supplementary material).…”

“…choices in terms of functionality, weight, and complexity. Sato et al describe an eight-channel system built around the Texas Instruments CC2431 microcontroller with built-in transceiver; careful programming of the microcontroller allows for half hour of flight time and approximately 24 h of battery life in sleep mode (Figure 3.1; [2,26,27]). The use of surface mount ceramic antennae results in a very small package in terms of size, mass, and inertial effect on the flying insect ( Figure 3.1b).…”

Modulating Motor Behaviors by Electrical Stimulation of Specific Nuclei in Pigeons

“…Bio-robots with designs based on animal locomotion systems have become a popular topic in the past decade. Many animals have been studied as bio-robots, such as Insecta: Periplaneta americana [5] , beetles [6,7] ; Pisces: Cyprinus carpio [8,9] ; Amphibia: Notophthalmus viridescens [10] ; Reptilia: Gekko gecko [11] ; Aves: pigeon [12] ; and Mammalia: rat [13][14][15][16] . Pigeons have outstanding abilities for long-distance flying, load carrying, and homing, which make them an ideal animal model for flying bio-robots.…”

Cyborg beetle: Thrust control of free flying beetle via a miniature wireless neuromuscular stimulator

“…For the flight control, many research groups have succeeded in flight initiation and cessation, left-right turns of living insects. The flight initiation and cessation were demonstrated by stimulating the optic lobes of the beetle [8][9][10] while the turning control was achieved by stimulating the flight muscles in beetle and moth [8][9][10][11] or stimulating the nervous system to induce abdomen movements in moth [12]. A challenge ahead for more sophisticated flight control is thrust, and we have attempted to grade the speed of freely flying insect by altering stimulation parameters.…”