Photo credit: University of Queensland
An unassuming darkling beetle hustles over a messy pile of rubble inside a lab at the University of Queensland, sporting a tiny microchip backpack. Researchers are actually steering this beetle, called “ZoBorg”, with a video game controller.
Darkling beetles, specifically Zophobas morio, are naturals at navigating messy environments. Dr. Thang Vo-Doan, a lead researcher at the University of Queensland’s School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, puts it like this: “Beetles are born with skills that make them champs at climbing and weaving through tight, chaotic spaces like rubble piles, where robots just can’t keep up.” The team taps into these skills by fitting the beetles with lightweight backpacks that send electrical pulses to their antennae and forewings, acting like a digital nudge to guide their movement.
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The backpack itself weighs about the same as the beetle. It’s a detachable module equipped with electrodes and a microprocessor. By zapping specific muscles, it nudges the beetle to scoot left, right, or even climb straight up walls. In tests, these little guys scaled vertical surfaces and dodged obstacles, all controlled remotely with a controller. “Our latest tests showed these beetles can zip side-to-side and climb walls—moves that’d make even the slickest robots jealous,” said Lachlan Fitzgerald, a research assistant and PhD scholar.
Disaster zones, like collapsed buildings, are packed with debris. Drones can monitor things from the sky, but they can’t peer through rubble. Beetles, though? They’re in their element. The ZoBorg’s backpack could one day carry sensors to pick up heat, carbon dioxide, or even sounds from trapped survivors. “We’re working on a tool that can slip through messy disaster zones to find exactly where someone’s stuck, spot any injuries, and give rescuers a clear picture of what’s needed to save them,” Fitzgerald says.
Early experiments used a tethered power source, but now the beetles can haul a battery as heavy as themselves without slowing down. Making this work in real disasters still needs some work. The team’s also figuring out how to add advanced sensors without weighing the beetles down too much. In five years, the UQ Biorobotics lab, teaming up with the University of New South Wales and Nanyang Technological University, plans to test these cyborg critters in actual disaster scenarios.
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