Researchers have equipped remotely controlled cockroaches with tiny diving suits that let them operate underwater for up to three hours. The development could expand the use of cyborg insects in search-and-rescue missions and space exploration.
Hirotaka Sato and his team at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore built the suits using 3D-printed watertight resin. The suits cover the abdominal spiracles while hoses deliver oxygen produced from a chemical reaction between hydrogen peroxide and manganese dioxide to the thorax spiracles.
Madagascar hissing cockroaches fitted with the suits walked underwater at depths of up to 50 centimetres for as long as three hours. Their average speed dropped only slightly from 87.5 millimetres per second on land to 78.4 millimetres per second underwater, and all monitored insects remained healthy three days later.
The work builds on earlier demonstrations in 2021 of remote control via electrodes in the insects’ cerci and in 2024 of coordinated swarms of 20 cyborg cockroaches. Sato said the suits represent one step toward space suits for cyborg insects that could explore the surface of Mars.
Alan Winfield of the University of the West of England noted that the insects’ natural energy efficiency offers clear advantages over small mechanical robots for tasks such as environmental monitoring.