Chinese Scientists Create Cyborg Bees That Can Be Controlled Like Drones for Undercover Military Missions

A tiny backpack relays commands straight to their brain.

Seal Team Bee

Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology have turned innocent bees into cyborgs that can be controlled via a 74-milligram insect brain controller.

As the South China Morning Post reports, the controller pierces the bee's tiny brain with three needles and uses signals sent via electronic pulses to make it fly forwards, backwards, left, or right.

According to the reporting, the bee obeyed these commands nine out of ten times.

The researchers are hoping that the tiny cyborg could allow the military to infiltrate hard-to-access space or be used in search and rescue missions to find survivors in natural disasters, according to a research paper.

"Insect-based robots inherit the superior mobility, camouflage capabilities and environmental adaptability of their biological hosts," the paper reads, as quoted by the SCMP.

Hive Mind

The idea of turning real-life insects into military agents is surprisingly widespread. We've already come across scientists turning cockroaches into a crawling legion of desert recon operatives.

Earlier this year, a team of Japanese scientists even controlled cicadas to turn their chirps into a rendition of the soundtrack of "Top Gun."

The Beijing team is betting on the "extended operational endurance" of real bees, which makes them "invaluable for covert reconnaissance in scenarios such as urban combat, counterterrorism and narcotics interdiction, as well as critical disaster relief operations."

But before an army of bees can infiltrate military targets as part of futuristic covert operations, the researchers still have plenty of hurdles to overcome.

For one, power delivery is still a major problem. The bees still need to be wired up to the controller to function, since a big enough battery weighs in at a relatively hefty 600 milligrams, vastly more than the tiny load of the equipment itself.

"In future research, precision and repeatability of insect behaviour control will be enhanced by optimising stimulation signals and control techniques," the paper reads, per the SCMP.

The researchers are looking to expand the functionalities of the system to the point where they can be used for "reconnaissance and detection missions."

More on cyborgs: Army of Backpack-Wearing Cyborg Cockroaches Swarm Desert Target