cyborg insects

I've been reading some of the articles on Cyborg Insects. Here are a few; in a next post, I plan to analyze the language around these DARPA projects, and suggest that not only are some of the ideas taken from fiction, but that the main tropes of cyborg rhetoric circulate in description of cyborg insects, and serve to normalize and justify such projects and downplay their potential problematic elements.

This is from the September 2009 Harpers, page 96, Findings.

The U.S. military reported progress in its cyborg-insect program and in building robots that can power themselves by eating the bodies of those they kill; the developers have promised that all “EATR” robots will be told not to eat people.

Soooo...that should take care of the robot problem...I love that the article doesn't feel it is necessary to mention why the military would want cyborg insects, or what progress would consist of.

I have been following some of the DARPA research, especially after 9/11. Here is one article on the so-called HI-MEMS program, (Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems), from LiveScience.com:

Cornell University researchers have succeeded in implanting electronic circuit probes into tobacco hornworms as early pupae. The hornworms pass through the chrysalis stage to mature into long-lived moths whose muscles can be controlled with the implanted electronics. The research was showcased at MEMS 2008, an international academic conference on Micro-Electrico-Mechanical Systems that took place from January 13-17 in Tucson, AZ.

The pupae insertion state was found to yield the best results. The resulting moth, a microsystem-controlled insect, has a circuit board protruding from the top of its midsection. Probes are inserted into the dorsoventral and dorsolongitudinal flight muscles. CT images show components of high absorbance indicating tissue growth around the probe.

The research also indicated the most favorable and least favorable times for insertion of control devices. The overall size of the circuit board is just 8x7mm, with a total weight of about 500 mg. The capacity of the battery is 16 mAh, and weighs 240 mg.


The insect cyborgs are part of a program called HI-MEMS (Hybrid Insect MEMS), a DARPA program initiated by Program Manager Dr. Amit Lal. The ultimate goal of the HI-MEMS program is to provide insect cyborgs that can demonstrate controlled flight; the insects would be used in a variety of military and homeland security applications.A driving voltage of 5 volts causes the tobacco hornworm blade muscles (two pairs) to move for flight and maneuvering.

HI-MEMS program director Amit Lal credits science fiction writer Thomas Easton with the idea. Lal read Easton's 1990 novelSparrowhawk, in which animals enlarged by genetic engineering (called Roachsters) were outfitted with implanted control systems.

Dr. Easton, a professor of science at Thomas College, sees a number of applications for HI-MEMS insects.

Moths are extraordinarily sensitive to sex attractants, so instead of giving bank robbers money treated with dye, they could use sex attractants instead. Then, a moth-based HI-MEMS could find the robber by following the scent."

"[Also,] with genetic engineering Darpa could replace the sex attractant receptor on the moth antennae with receptors for other things, like explosives, drugs or toxins," said Easton.

DARPA had better be careful with its insect army; in Easton's novel, hackers are able to gain control of genetically engineered animals by hacking the controller chips used in their implanted control structures.

If you are interested in one dark-side view of how this kind of invention could be used by corporations for advertising, see the madcap blurbflies from Jeff Noon's excellent 2000 sf novel Nymphomation.

Notice that the DARPA plan involves not simply putting tech on an insect, but implanting teh technology early on in the insect's metamorphosis, according to Technovelgy.com:

In their solicitation notice BAA06-22, DARPA explicitly rejects research which merely results in "evolutionary improvement upon existing state-of-the-art." They are looking for more innovative proposals, suggesting that it should be possible to integrate microsystems within insects during the early stages of metamorphosis. Specifically, DARPA believes that "healing processes from one metamorphic stage to the next stage are expected to yield more reliable" implantation results. Hopefully, this will result in more sophisticated (and more reliable) bio-electromechanical interfaces, as opposed to those cheap "adhesively-bonded systems" sometimes used on adult insects.

The final demonstration goal of the HI-MEMS program is the controlled arrival of an insect within five meters of a specified target located one hundred meters from the insect's starting point. It must then remain stationary indefinitely, unless otherwise instructed. It must also be able to transmit data from DOD sensors providing information about the local environment.

Tired of working with flying insects? No problem; DARPA says that "hopping and swimming insects could also meet final demonstration goals."

Effort is required in the following areas:

1. Demonstrate reliable bio-electromechanical interfaces to insects

2. Demonstrate locomotion control using MEMS platforms

3. Demonstrate technologies to scavenge power from insects

Here notice that the key is to move from crude add-on cyborg elements to finding ways to hack and control the insect's own senses (including its sight). This links up with work I've done on mind control programs (Jose Delgado, especially) and how this work is a key element of both cyborg novels/fictions and "actual" cyborg projects. The following article "HI-MEMS: Cyborg Beetle Microsystem" develops this idea:

One specific program under Darpa is being developed by a University of Michigan team: a cyborg unicorn beetle microsystem. The aim of such systems? The article claims "The vision of HI-MEMS - insect swarms with various sorts of different embedded MEMS sensors (like video cameras, audio microphones and chemical sniffers) could penetrate enemy territory in swarms. The HI-MEMS swarms could then perform reconnaissance missions beyond the capabilities of bulky human soldiers.”

And here is the picture, worth at least a thousand cyborgian words: