The animal of the week is a cockroach, for which the researchers made a small diving suit

Scientists built diving suits for remote-controlled cockroaches in Singapore. With the help of an oxygen suit, a cockroach can be walked under water for hours.

No kidding. A study just came out about this Nature Communications in the journal.

Nanyangin the technical university has been developing cyborg insects, i.e. various remotely controlled insects, for a decade.

For example, small electrodes are installed on the antennae of a cockroach, which use electrical impulses to guide the cockroach in the desired direction.

And when you put a small camera on the cockroach’s back, you can use the nimble little wanderer to explore tight places.

Cyborg cockroaches was used for the first time last year in Myanmar, when searching for earthquake victims in the ruins.

Torakka however, cannot breathe underwater. So the researchers built their own little diving suit for the cockroaches, so that the bug can also get into places filled with water.

The plastic suit has a small oxygen generator. It breaks down hydrogen peroxide and manganese oxide into oxygen, which the cockroach then breathes through air tubes. The hoses connect directly to the air ducts of the cockroach’s body. Cockroaches do not have lungs, but take in oxygen from holes in their sides.

With the help of this diving suit, cockroaches survived underwater for up to three hours. Later, it is planned to connect a navigation system and various sensors to the suit.

Of course, you could also build small robots, but living insects are convenient because they don’t run out of battery. The devices should not harm the cockroach.

The experiment used the Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa). The name comes from the fact that the cockroach really hisses. When danger threatens, it vigorously blows air out.

When something is searched for really frantically, it is said that it is searched “with cats and dogs”. The saying can be updated to modern times. Searching with cats, dogs and remote controlled cockroaches.