Experiment setup for autonomous navigation of terrestrial cyborg beetles with burst stimulation. (IMAGE)
Caption
(A) The cyborg is made of the darkling beetle Z. morio with electrodes implanted into its antennae and elytra and a wireless backpack mounted on its back. (B) Stimulation protocols for locomotion control. Electrical stimulation of the left antenna induces a right turn and vice versa, while stimulating both elytra drives the beetle forward. The upper right panel illustrates the traditional continuous protocol, and the middle panel represents the proposed burst modulation. The lower part shows the electrical waveform for elytra stimulation. (C) Overview of the feedback control system for autonomous navigation of cyborg beetles. The beetle’s motion was limited within an experimental region of 1,200 mm × 600 mm when being navigated to track a predetermined path of y = 170sin(2πx/850) mm. In each navigation trial, the beetle is initially placed at the starting region (x = 0 mm, y = 0 mm, R = 40 mm) and navigated toward the destination region while tracking the predetermined path (x = 0 mm, y = 850 mm, R = 40 mm). The beetle’s instantaneous location data (x, y) are tracked by a motion capture system (Vicon Bonita). (D) Block diagram of the feedback control system.
Credit
Hai Nhan Le, University of Queensland.
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