-Sudharsan
What?
Locusts are a type of short horned grasshoppers, these locusts are to be used by US military to find bombs.
Who?
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have implanted the locusts with cybernetic implants to make it detect bombs. This research is funded by the Office of Naval Research (USA) and it's led by professor Baranidharan Raman.
How?
These grasshoppers have enhanced odor sensors, they can detect new smells within few hundred milliseconds. These locusts can be trained to detect particular type of smells, the training is similar to that of canine bomb detection. Small electronic implants can be installed on the locust that give out information to the type of smell they are detecting.
The toughest part of the research was to navigate the "cyborg locusts" to the direction of the bombs, the scientists have found a way to do that effectively. The wings of the locusts are tattooed with a biocompatible silk, this silk responds to heat sensors. By targeting lasers to one wing, the locust can be made to move in the other direction.
Why?
As we all know, bombs are destructive, can kill a large number of people, even with bomb detectors and the use of animals, bombs are still extremely difficult find. Bombs sqard can lead to loss of lives, and dogs are extremely difficult to train and sometimes even accidentally detonate bombs.
And so
Cyborg locust can be an easy, cheap and an efficient way to detect bombs, as they are small enough to detect bombs hidden anywhere without detonating them.
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