🦗 日本东北大学的研究团队在2023年使用竹节虫进行了生物混合机器人研究。实验旨在更精确地控制昆虫关节的扭矩，通过电刺激其肌肉来实现。

🪳 研究人员开发了两种导航算法，使赛博蟑螂能够在更复杂的真实世界环境中导航。这些蟑螂利用其自然能力，如攀爬墙壁，形成了“生物混合”行为系统。

💡 赛博昆虫相对于传统机器人具有优势，例如功耗更低，更易于微型化，并且在某种程度上是“预先构建”的。这些研究探索了赛博昆虫在复杂环境中的应用潜力。

Previously, I logged the history of insect-machine hybrid robots in “A Brief History of Cyborg Insects (and Spiders)”.

I gave a quick update a year ago in “Cyborg Insects Update: The Amazing Cockroach, Biomimetic Robots and Cyborg Bugs in Recent Years.”

So far in 2025, I’ve noticed two new stories about cyborg insects. Both of these projects come from Japan.

Stick Insects

Tech Briefs recently reported on biohybrid robot research using stick insects at Tohoku University.¹ The research was actually done back in 2023.²

They didn’t actually let the stick insect cyborg loose to wander around, they had it attached to a piece of wood. However, their experiments showed a more precise way to control the torque of the insect’s joints when electrically stimulating its muscles.³

More Cockroaches

According to a press release:⁴

Cyborg insects have a lot of advantages over traditional robots. Power consumption is less of an issue, so it’s easier to miniaturize them, and they are even ‘pre-built’ in a sense. However, research on cyborg insects has been limited to simple environments, like flat surfaces supplemented with external devices to aid navigation. The research team wanted to see if a cyborg insect could navigate a more complex, real-world environment.

This research came up with two navigation algorithms for their decked out cyber-roaches. But it’s not all radio control—they’re supposedly autonomous. They take advantage of the cockroach’s natural abilities such as wall climbing to create a “biohybrid” behavior system.⁵