Cyborg Beetles: Merging of Machine and Insect to Create Flying Robots: Scientific American

Cyborg Beetles: Merging of Machine and Insect to Create Flying Robots: Scientific American: Rather than building a robotic insect from scratch, we use the insects themselves as flying machines. In that way, we dispense with the heavy batteries and the micromanufacturing techniques and focus just on the man-made control systems, which intervene as necessary in the animals’ flight. In other words, the insect flies itself, but circuitry embedded into its nervous system transmits commands—turn left or right, up or down—from remote human operators. In effect, we make cyborg fliers—part insect, part machine.