Cyborg locusts will look for explosives

    “Release the locust sapper,” - in two years the head of the sapper divisions will probably be able to give such a team thanks to research conducted today by a group of American scientists and engineers from the University of Washington in St. Louis. In fact, to turn the locusts in managed bio-cyborg Navy interested in the speedy result, it has already allocated a team leader Baranidharanu Ramana ( Baranidharan Raman ) three-year grant in the amount of $ 750 000.

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    A team of engineers from the University of Washington in St. Louis under the direction of Ramana Baranidharana counts use the natural capabilities of the locust olfaction mechanism to create promising sounding systems that can be used to detect explosives.

    Baranidharan Raman, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, was able to provide the U.S. Naval Research Administration (ONR) with strong enough evidence to support the promise of development and receive a three-year grant of $ 750,000 for research. This amount made it possible not only to ensure the interest of key specialists in various fields of knowledge, but also to create all the conditions for fruitful experiments.

    Comprehensive studies conducted by the Raman laboratory over the past few years have made it possible to study in detail how the relatively simple locust brain receives and processes sensory signals. The researchers concluded that even minor changes in the chemical composition of air, causing a smell, provoke an almost instantaneous dynamic neural activity of the insect brain. As shown by experiments, using this simplest locust mechanism is able to accurately identify a specific smell, even as part of many others.

    A series of experiments aimed at studying the ability of locusts to acquire the skills of selective response to specific odors yielded a positive result. Moreover, locusts that underwent “training” were able to accurately identify the desired smell, not only in the composition of many others, but also when exposed to aggravating background conditions.

    “Why reinvent the wheel? Why not take advantage of off-the-shelf structural biological solutions? - argues Raman - But, ... even the most advanced miniature chemical devices today use only a few sensors. On the other hand, it’s worth looking at the antennae of insects, and you will consider several hundred thousand sensors, of various types. Isn’t it easier and more efficient to use these natural capabilities for detecting explosives? ”Experimental results collected by Raman over several years of studying insects look quite convincing. They also confirm: their olfactory organs work by orders of magnitude more accurately and efficiently than the most modern sensory technologies.

    In accordance with the task, Raman and a team of fellow programmers, materials scientists and circuit engineers suggested using the natural capabilities of the sensory system for smelling locusts as the basis for the development of a “bio-hybrid nose”. Researchers are going to achieve the goal in several stages.

    Task N1. “Biological sensing systems are an order of magnitude more complex than their cybernetic counterparts. This fully applies to the chemical sensing system responsible for the sense of smell, ”Raman explained. In order to turn a harmful insect into a creature that can save the lives of people, of course, surgical intervention will be required. For this purpose, special sensors are planned to be implanted into the locust brain, which will decode neural impulses. According to Raman, a few hours after such an operation, the insect is already in perfect order.

    Task N2 - to develop a miniature backpack-transmitter with LEDs, mounted on the back of the locusts and transmitting signals from the brain of the insect to the receiver. The situation when the smell is not recognized will correspond to a burning green LED, and when the smell is identified, it will be accompanied by a red light.

    The task of N3 is to turn the locust into a “flying machine” controlled from the ground and to develop a system that allows directing the insect to the place of potential laying of explosives. Researchers intend to solve this problem with the help of a specific “tattoo” on the wings, applied with biocompatible silk. The low-energy laser beam directed by the operator, getting on the tattoo turns into heat. When the beam is focused on a tattoo located on the left wing, the insect reorients to the left, and vice versa.

    Another irreplaceable advantage of the technology proposed by a group of American researchers is the incredible odor recognition speed: a fraction of a second will be enough to identify any of them.

    In addition, tattoos literally studded with plasmon nanostructures will allow the collection of samples of volatile organic compounds in the contact zone to study their chemical composition using more traditional methods.

    According to the information published on the pages of the university’s website, the prototype of the cyborg locust will be able to present the Ramana group in a year. Considering recent workprofessors and the ranking of his laboratory in academia, this promise no longer seems so unlikely. If the researchers’s plans are realized, then in two years the squadron of flying bio-cyborgs will go on their first reconnaissance mission.

    About Ramana Baranidharan’s laboratory

    Research conducted at Ramana’s laboratory is aimed at understanding the organization and functioning of biological sensory systems used by the relatively simple olfactory invertebrate system. To achieve this, by combining various electrophysiological recording methods and computational modeling methods, scientists are exploring how multidimensional and dynamic odor signals are encoded in a neural representation (odor coding) and processed in the brain.

    Understanding how the brain interprets complex sensory stimuli is crucial for developing neuromorphic
    devices and algorithms for solving parallel engineering problems. In collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Professor Raman’s laboratory is currently developing a neuromorphic “electronic nose” based on MEMS array microsensors for non-invasive chemical sensing. Potential targeted applications for electronic nose technology include medical diagnostics, national security, environmental monitoring, space research, robotics, and human-computer interaction.

    A source



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