3/15/06

Insect Cyborgs and Swarmbots

Swarmbots are a new way of thinking about robots.

Lots of small, cheap robots that can spread out and search an area quickly and are controlled through a hive mind.

Along similar lines, DARPA is also investigating implanting electronics into insects.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more-effective to bio-engineer the insects from scratch? The problem must be that the Bushies don't like anything that smacks too much of playing God.

They have no problem with killing people by the boatload, but the whole bioethics thing makes them queasy.
The Pentagon is trying to develop "insect cyborgs" able to sniff out explosives, or "bug" conversations by lurking unseen in enemy hideouts with micro-transmitters strapped to their bodies.

The cyborgs - half insect, half robot - would be created by inserting tiny devices into the bodies of flying, hopping or crawling insects while in their larva or pupa stage, so that the mechanisms become part of their bodies and ultimately allow them to be moved by remote control.|Guardian|

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