German start-up creates unlikely search-and-rescue workers: cockroaches with tiny backpacks

Societies across the world are looking for ways to lower the loss of human life during military operations and rescue missions. There are heroes out there whose duty it is to risk their personal health and safety to rescue people trapped under rubble in toxic areas. Though they do an amazing job, they routinely put themselves in harm's way for the sake of others. Ideally, we'd have heroes who can rescue others and make it out unscathed themselves. Turns out, those heroes could be cockroaches with little backpacks.

SWARM Biotactics, a start-up in Germany, is working on using Madagascar hissing cockroaches with tiny backpacks fitted with cameras and microphones to act as spies to be used in search-and-rescue missions. This science-fiction-sounding scheme seems like something from a '90s animated action show, but it is indeed very real.

It’s a common joke that the only life forms that could survive the apocalypse would be cockroaches, but it’s not too far from the truth. SWARM Biotactics is experimenting with the small insects in part because of their ability to survive within areas of extreme heat, radiation, and chemical exposure that would otherwise harm people. If SWARM’s “cyborg cockroach” plan expands and comes to fruition, their little rescuers would be able to search in those dangerous areas and tight corners to find people without risking human life and health. They are also stealthy enough for spy missions to surveil potentially dangerous areas.

"Millions of years of evolution actually produced a very resilient, a very mobile and a very capable insect," said SWARM Biotactics CEO Stefan Wilhelm to CBS News. "That is, for what we want to do, a perfect, perfect animal, actually."

SWARM isn't the only one seeing the value of cockroaches for spying and search-and-rescue operations. Scientists in Singapore are also testing Madagascar hissing cockroaches to help with disaster relief.

SWARM's insect neuroscientists attach electrodes to the roaches' antennae to stimulate the insects' natural ability to navigate. Using a controller, they are able to “nudge” the insects where they need to explore, using the tiny backpacks to record video, audio, triangulate a position, and do whatever else their task requires.

SWARM claims the procedure to attach these electrodes and backpacks is painless to the creatures, emphasizing that the cockroaches need to be taken care of. This isn’t strictly for humane treatment; it's necessary to keep the roaches in top form for spying missions, reconnaissance, and search-and-rescue assignments.

"They're very important for us, and they need to be in very good condition, and have a good life, in order to, you know, perform well in their missions," Wilhelm told CBS News. "We make sure we take good care of them."

SWARM isn’t the first tech company experimenting with insects to perform these tasks. In 2017, Draper and their DragonflEye program had been looking into using dragonflies as a natural alternative to modern mechanical drones. Earlier this year, the University of Queensland in Australia experimented with beetles in a similar fashion to SWARM’s roaches to conduct search-and-rescue missions down under. If not cyborg-insects, there have been some companies making robots inspired by bees and mosquitoes to help with human affairs.

Such as how we have dogs to help police and firefighters, we could soon see cockroaches as allies for the good of humans, improving their otherwise dirty reputation. Time will tell if these bugs will be embraced as a force for good or if the idea will eventually disperse like a group of cockroaches when a light turns on.