This ingenious little platform on a Pinacate beetle contains a panoramic camera.
Mark Stone / University of Washington
We have a new innovation in the scientific search to create high-tech animal backpacks. Fruit flies, pigeons and bees They have had their moments. Now is the time for the beetles that use small panoramic cameras.
“We have created a low-power, low-weight wireless camera system that can capture a first-person view of what is happening from a real live insect or create vision for small robots,” said Shyam Gollakota, senior author at the University. from Washington. a document on the system published in the journal Science Robotics on Wednesday.
The university released a video highlighting how the camera works by transmitting black and white images to a phone. The app also allows investigators to order the camera to rotate for panoramic views.
The team tested the backpack with a mock death beetle and a Pinacate beetle and monitored them to make sure they could move without restrictions. The beetles did not seem bothered by the small amount of extra weight and lived for more than a year after the project ended.
“This is the first time that we have a first-person view from the back of a beetle while walking,” said co-author Vikram Iyer.
This insect-sized robot was designed to carry the camera of the scarab backpack.
Mark Stone / University of Washington
The camera can run for more than six hours on battery power when used with an accelerometer that activates the camera only when the beetle moves. Future versions could use solar energy.
The camera works on both small robots and insects. The researchers said they built “this world’s smallest autonomous wireless energy-based terrestrial robot” for this project.
The robot the size of a low-powered insect moves through the vibrations, although it has to pause its movements to take a stable image with the camera.
The camera system for beetles is not just creepy. It could help scientists learn more about insects and how they react to their environments. It could also point to a new way of gathering images in hard-to-reach areas.
And maybe one day we’ll have a scarab version of The Blair Witch Project.
