Paraborg: Paramedic Cyborg Insects for In Situ Emergency Drug‐Delivery

ABSTRACT

Over the past two decades, cyborg insects have emerged as a promising alternative to artificial insect‐scale mobile robots, owing to their low power consumption, resilient biological bodies with naturally integrated sensors, agile locomotion, and self‐adaptability. However, most studies have focused primarily on autonomous control and hardware integration for search‐oriented urban search‐and‐rescue operations following natural disasters such as earthquakes. This raises a crucial next‐step challenge: beyond locating survivors, what life‐saving interventions can cyborg insects perform? Here, we present paramedic cyborg insects (Paraborgs) equipped with a human‐supervised auto‐injection mechanism (AIM) and onboard camera, enabling needle‐based in situ liquid‐drug‐delivery executed by multiple teleoperated cyborg cockroaches. The feasibility of Paraborg is demonstrated through three core innovations: (i) a compact auto‐injection mechanism that launches an injector and delivers liquid drug to a target with an 90% success rate; a robust manual control strategy achieving 100% success in reaching designated checkpoints, 72% success in stabilizing cyborg cockroaches for targeted injection, and up to 95% close‐range injection success within 150 mm of the target; and (iii) teamwork concept with multiple teleoperated cyborg insects for carrying out complex in situ functions. Together, these results demonstrate Paraborg as a prospective platform that extends cyborg insect swarm toward field‐deployable medical intervention.