Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are planning to make cyborg locusts that will be able to sniff out explosives
Baranidharan Raman from Washington University said that for past many years, they have studied the way locusts smell. The Office of Naval Research in the US has given him a grant of worth $750,000 to continue his research for three years
Prof Raman said that the locusts’ brain is able to track a new odor introduced in its surrounding in just a few hundred milliseconds. The researchers said that they will attack sensors to the locusts. These sensors will be connected to those parts of the locusts’ brain that processed odors in the environment
The sensors would send information to a computer chip that could decode it and alert authorities when a locust would sense a threat
Prof. Srikanth Singamaneni, a specialist in nano-materials, will be creating a plasmonic ‘tattoo’ made of biocompatible silk. The tattoo will be applied on the locusts’ wings to result into mild heat and help them move towards specific locations through remote control
Tattoos task is to assist in the collection of samples of organic compounds that are found in the air
Locusts will be outfitted with a small bag to bring data and antennas. The receiver will light up red when an explosive is detected and light up green when the area is clear
The researchers think that the sample will be ready within a year and if it turns out to be successful then the locusts would be ready in less than two years
Prof. Raman believes that the new sensor technology could help in detecting medical conditions in humans that are currently diagnosed through smell. Prof. Bahrani Raman, associate professor of bioengineering at the university, said that for now it would be too early to predict as to how the technology would be used in the field
According to Raman, it is easier to use locusts than using dogs that requires more complicated surgery to implant the sensors. He affirmed, “We can do a surgery on [the locusts] and implant these electrodes into their brain. During a few hours this surgical operation is performed
they can recover and they Locusts can be exercised his life normally after the surgery
The plan has been made after the research team has studied the method through which locusts’ process smells. The researchers came to know that the bugs are able to detect certain smells, including the ones that have been trained to identify
The researchers said rather than coming up with something completely new, they are taking advantage of the biological solution. Prof. Raman believes that cyborrg locusts would be able to do better job in detecting bombs than robots that are created for specific purposes
It is a significant advancement in which locusts are turned into cyborg bomb detection machines
published on the topic by BBC News, "The scientists are working on the research and experiences of locusts in order to allow them to the discovery of explosives through the sense of smell
Where the locusts have a strong sense of smell like dogs and more. They say heat-generating "tattoos" will enable them to be guided into dangerous or remote areas via remote control Neural signals from the locust's brain will then be processed by an on-board low-power processing chip that will decode the information and send a wireless alert back to the authorities. And the result will appear on a simple LED: red for present, green for absent."
Baranidharan Raman, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science Washington University, has studied the way locusts smell for several years. And the Office of Naval Research in the US has now given him a $750,000 (£565,000) grant to continue his research. Olfaction, better known as the ability to smell, is considered a primary sensory quality in insects whereas it is more of an aesthetic sense for humans, according to Prof Raman
"It took only a few hundred milliseconds for the locust's brain to begin tracking a novel odour introduced in its surroundings. The locusts are processing chemical cues in an extremely rapid fashion. "Even the state-of-the-art miniaturised chemical-sensing devices have a handful of sensors. On the other hand, if you look at the insect antennae, where their chemical sensors are located, there are several hundreds of thousands of sensors and of a variety of types."
"US engineers are developing heat-generating "tattoos" that would turn locusts into remote-controlled bomb detectors. Baranidharan Raman, of the Washington University in St Louis, said cyborg insects could fly into inaccessible locations and ran a far less risk of triggering explosions. Raman's work has won a $750,000 (about R11-million) grant from the Office of Naval Research to develop a locust model," according to a recent Times Live report
He is working with an expert in nanomaterials to develop a biocompatible silk "tattoo" that can be placed on a locust wing, generating heat from light. A laser beam is used as a remote control, steering the locust towards or away from targets by heating up its wings. Brain activity is then monitored by an on-board chip before being sent wirelessly to the operator. A simple red or green signal indicates the presence or absence of explosives
If all goes according to plan, the sensors would send information to a computer chip that could decode it and alert authorities when a locust encounters a threat. It's too early to speculate how the technology could be used in the field, said Bahrani Raman, an associate professor of bioengineering at Wash U. But if its users wanted to examine an area that's possibly dangerous, they could place a locust atop a drone and send it in the area "to see if there's an explosive device, like a land mine."
"We can do a surgery on [the locusts] and implant these electrodes into their brain," he said. "Within a few hours, they can recover and they can walk and behave as if nothing had happened." Authorities could steer the locusts using a remote-control device that will be linked to a silk "tattoo" applied on their wings. The tattoo, developed by Srikanth Singamaeni, an associate professor of material science at Wash U, would generate a mild heat and prompt the locust to turn
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