To the rescue: a beetle in a backpack

The team - from the Universities of California, Berkeley and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University - strapped tiny computers to the back of giant flower beetles in order to record neuromuscular data during flight.

During test flights, the researchers were able to determine that a muscle known for controlling the folding of wings (the coleopteran muscle) was also critical to steering. They then used this information to improve the precision of the beetles’ remote-controlled turns, by transmitting signals to the “beetle backpack” that prompted the insect to take off, turn left or right, or even hover in mid-flight.

The backpack itself is made up of a tiny, off-the-shelf microcontroller and a built-in wireless receiver and transmitter. Six electrodes are connected to the beetle’s optic lobes and flight muscles. The entire device is powered by a 3.9-volt micro lithium battery and weighs 1 to 1.5 grams.