Remote Controlled Pigeons

A team of scientists from the Robot Research Center at the Shandong University of Science and Technology have implanted radio receiver electrodes in the brain of pigeons to control them.
The scientists can make the pigeons hover, fly or turn right or left through a computer control.

"Chief scientist Professor Su Xuecheng explained the pigeon does not feel sense of pain at the head and failures will not influence the pigeon's life."

In fact, the control will allow the pigeons to be less of a threat to social stability and national unity in China.

Welcom to Changsha!

Also:
Zombie Mice Robots
Robot Zombie Cockroaches

Robot Reptile To Go Undercover

I recently posted about a female robot sage-grouse to be used to lure unsuspecting males like the FBI on Myspace.

Now here is another case of robots being used to surreptitiously spy on the males of another species.

Jennifer Moore from Victoria University School of Biological Science has made a robot tuatara to mingle with the real monsters in the wild. She says, "If we can better understand how male tuatara establish their dominance, we may be better able to select individuals to start new populations in the future."

She was helped by artists from the special effects lab Weta Workshop to craft the robot. The body was cast from from one of the lab's tuataras, Oliver, who had passed away. He is now immortalized - reincarnated with the personality of a biology researcher.

Oliver the tuatara lives on - as a robot - 22 Feb 2007 - National News - New Zealand Herald

Fembot Sage-Grouse Lures Males

In sting operation worthy of prime time television, scientists at University of California Davis are using a female sage-grouse robot to study the behavior of males with mating on their mind.

Dr. Gail Patricelli has used robots in bird research before to fool Australian satin bowerbirds for her thesis. Now she is using a female sage-grouse on the open fields of Wyoming to tempt male birds into showing off for the camera.

The robot is a stuffed bird that moves along toy railroad tracks. The robot can turn her head, turn around, crouch and bob her head up and down when she moves. She has a microphine and hidden camera to record the conduct of the males. The robot, which must look really hot to the male birds, is secretly controlled by the researchers who are off-screen somewhere totally cracking up.


See the lurid sex video here.

The Patricalli Lab

The Davis Enterprise, Love Bird?

Robot Zombie Cockroaches

"Insects can do many things that people can't, " Isao Shimoyama,the head of the bio-robot research team at Tokyo University says. "The potential applications of this work for mankind could be immense." Within a few years, electronically controlled insects carrying mini-cameras or other sensory devices could be used for a variety of sensitive missions - like crawling through earthquake rubble to search for victims, or slipping under doors on espionage surveillance.

"We had an incident last week where we sent a roach into an duct to test for an air leak, when we asked the roach to turn right, it responded by asking for our email addresses and offered to send us viagra in return." said Assistant Professor Isao Shimoyama, head of the bio-robot research team.

Far-fetched as that might seem, the Japanese government has deemed the research credible enough to award $5 million to Shimoyama's micro-robotics team and biologists at Tsukuba University, a leading science center in central Japan.

...they select roaches to equip with high-tech "backpacks" - tiny microprocessor and electrode sets. Wings and antennae are removed. Where the antennae used to be researchers fit pulse-emitting electrodes. With a remote, researchers send signals to the backpacks, which stimulate the electrodes. The pulsing electrodes make the roach turn left, turn right, scamper forward or spring backward.

"The technology isn't so difficult," he said. "The difficulty is to really understand what is happening in the nervous system."

Perhaps trying to motivate the roaches instead of controlling them would help.

corrosion roach robot Corrosioneering Newletter InterCorr International: "Tsukuba University"

Robot Cockroaches Go Native

Mini robot mimics cockroaches
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Scientists in Lausanne, Switzerland, have successfully infiltrated a colony of roaches with a micro robot that has enough intricacies to interact with the world's most resilient insect, according to a report published in the June issue of IEEE Robotics & Automation.



Called InsBot, for "insect-like robot," the mechanical bug mimics the insects' smell and movements to the point that the roaches have accepted it as their own. That feat helps scientists study mixed societies of animals and robots.

In their latest experiment, the miniature robot drew the group of insects from a darkly lighted den to a more lit location, despite the roaches' affinity for low lighting. The roaches followed InsBot for the companionship.

The experiment is part of a European project called Leurre, which is focused on the study of the intersection between biology and robotics. Scientists believe that if they can use robots to mimic and respond to animals then they could eventually control the animals' behavior.


Mini robot mimics cockroaches | CNET News.com: "Leurre"

InsBot design details

Zombie Mice Robots

Ananova - Robot scientists control live mouse

Robotic scientists in China have succeeded in 'controlling' live mice.

Experts at the robot research centre in Shandong Technology University controlled white mice by stimulating micro-electrodes on their heads.

Your wish is my command

The mice obeyed computer-generated commands to, in succession, "turn left", "turn right" and "move forward".




Ananova - Robot scientists control live mouse