Earth & Sky

Scientists build a robo-moth

robo-moth (Photo: Prof. Charles M. Higgins, University of Arizona)

Scientists have built a robot controlled by a moth. They’re calling it … what else? A robo-moth.

A hawk moth is about as big as a hummingbird. This live moth guides the movements of a robot that’s not much bigger. The robot uses the moth’s visual impulses for guidance.

Earth & Sky spoke with Charles Higgins at the University of Arizona. Higgins has built other robots based on insect neurobiology. He started wondering how he could tap into the brain of a live insect, and harness its sensory system to a computer or a robot. And so the idea for the robo-moth was born.

Here’s how it works: the moth is immobilized inside a plastic tube, which is mounted on the robot. The scientists drill a tiny hole in the back of the moth’s head and attach an electrode to a single neuron in its brain. The electrode picks up the moth’s visual signals, and through an electrical device, the robot is able to interpret them. But if the moth’s head moves, the electrode will lose the connection with the neuron.

Higgins envisions a future where computers combine living and non-living components – meaning, your computer could have an insect’s eye as part of its visual system. But that’s a long way off.

Written by Lindsay Patterson