Previously, I recorded the history of hybrid insect-machine robots in “A brief history of cyborg insects (and spiders)”.
I gave a quick update a year ago “Cyborg Insects Update: The Amazing Cockroach, Biomimétic Robots and Cyborg Bugs in recent years.”
So far in 2025, I have noticed two new stories on Cyborg insects. These two projects come from Japan.
Stick insects
Technological briefs Recently reported on the search for organic robots using stick insects at Tohoku University. The research was carried out in 2025.
They didn't really leave the Cyborg stick insects to walk, they had attached it to a piece of wood. However, their experiences have shown a more precise way to control the torque of the insect joints when they electrically stimulated its muscles.
No more cockroaches
According to a press release:
Cyborg insects have many advantages compared to traditional robots. Energy consumption is less a problem, so it is easier to miniaturize them, and they are even “pre-constructed” in a sense. However, research on Cyborg insects has limited to simple environments, such as flat areas supplemented by external devices to facilitate navigation. The research team wanted to see if a Cyborg insect could navigate a more complex and real environment.
This research has created two navigation algorithms for their strewls strewn. But it is not all radio-control-they are supposedly autonomous. They take advantage of the natural capabilities of the cockroach such as climbing to create a “biohybrid” behavior system.
