Cyborg Insects Update 2

Previously, I logged the history of insect-machine hybrid robots in “A Brief History of Cyborg Insects (and Spiders)”.

I gave a quick update a year ago in “Cyborg Insects Update: The Amazing Cockroach, Biomimetic Robots and Cyborg Bugs in Recent Years.”

So far in 2025, I’ve noticed two new stories about cyborg insects. Both of these projects come from Japan.

Stick Insects

Tech Briefs recently reported on biohybrid robot research using stick insects at Tohoku University.¹ The research was actually done back in 2023.²

They didn’t actually let the stick insect cyborg loose to wander around, they had it attached to a piece of wood. However, their experiments showed a more precise way to control the torque of the insect’s joints when electrically stimulating its muscles.³

More Cockroaches

According to a press release:⁴

Cyborg insects have a lot of advantages over traditional robots. Power consumption is less of an issue, so it’s easier to miniaturize them, and they are even ‘pre-built’ in a sense. However, research on cyborg insects has been limited to simple environments, like flat surfaces supplemented with external devices to aid navigation. The research team wanted to see if a cyborg insect could navigate a more complex, real-world environment.

This research came up with two navigation algorithms for their decked out cyber-roaches. But it’s not all radio control—they’re supposedly autonomous. They take advantage of the cockroach’s natural abilities such as wall climbing to create a “biohybrid” behavior system.⁵