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Cyborg beetle reveals insights into flying insects

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A giant flower beetle is shown flying with an electronic backpack. Researchers remotely control its untethered flight by stimulating a newly discovered steering muscle. (Credit: Tat Thang Vo Doan and Hirotaka Sato/NTU Singapore)

Provided by Sarah Yang, University of California-Berkeley

Hard-wiring beetles for radio-controlled flight turns out to be a fitting way to learn more about their biology. Cyborg insect research led by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Singapores Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is enabling new revelations about a muscle used by beetles for finely graded turns.

By strapping tiny computers and wireless radios onto the backs of giant flower beetles and recording neuromuscular data as the bugs flew untethered, scientists determined that a muscle known for controlling the folding of wings was also critical to steering. The researchers then used that information to improve the precision of the beetles remote-controlled turns.

[STORY: Cockroaches have individual personalities, study finds]

This study, to be published Monday, March 16, in the journalCurrent Biology, showcases the potential of wireless sensors in biological research. Research in this field could also lead to applications such as tools to aid search-and-rescue operations in areas too dangerous for humans.

The giant flower beetles in this study averaged 6 centimeters long and weighed about 8 grams. (Credit: Tat Thang Vo Doan and Hirotaka Sato/NTU Singapore)

This is a demonstration of how tiny electronics can answer interesting, fundamental questions for the larger scientific community, said Michel Maharbiz, an associate professor in UC Berkeleys Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the studys principal investigator. Biologists trying to record and study flying insects typically had to do so with the subject tethered. It had been unclear if tethering interfered with the insects natural flight motions.

In particular, the researchers said, it had been difficult to elucidate the role that smaller muscles play in fine steering. What the new study found was that the coleopteran third axillary sclerite (3Ax) muscle, found in the articulation of insect wings, plays a key function in the beetles ability to steer left or right.

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Cyborg beetle reveals insights into flying insects

Joe Rogan: Everyone Should Fear Cyborg at 145, Including Ronda Rousey

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Jeff Chiu/Associated Press Cris Cyborg

As Ronda Rousey continues to dominate the women's bantamweight division, Cristiane "Cyborg" Justino lurks in the background, constantly hanging over her legacy like an immutable cloud of darkness.

Rousey is content to keep her head down in the pouring rain of criticism, refusing to look up at the one threat actually capable of dethroning her. Much has been made about weight as reasoning behind this superfight's delayed existence.

But those arguments are often countered by the fact that Rousey started her professional MMA career as a featherweight. Not to mention, she competed at 154 pounds to win a bronze medal in judo in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Rousey has even teased at taking bouts against former featherweight contender Gina Carano and women's boxing legend Laila Ali, but when it comes to moving up to fight Cyborg, it's typically the same old, same old from the champ. If she isn't calling Cyborg a cheaterfor failing a drug test over three years ago, she is constantly trying to bait the Invicta featherweight champ into cutting 40 pounds and meeting her at 135 pounds.

The entire ordeal is a head-scratcher for most. When appearing on Fox Sports 1'sAmerica's Pregame, Rousey claimed she was "the greatest fighter of all time." If this were true, wouldn't she want to move up in weight and beat Cyborg to create substance for such braggadocios claims?

Not necessarily, according to Joe Rogan.

During The Joe Rogan Experience(NSFW language) podcast show, the UFC commentator admitted he wasn't the least bit surprised by Rousey refusing to move up and take on Cyborg at featherweight:

Do I understand why Ronda would want to fight her at 135? Of course, yeah, it's the smart thing to do. You're going to fight a f-----g wrecking machine. She's big, and she knocks b-----s out. She knocks chicks out in a way that very few fighters knock people out. She puts it on girls. She's scary. Everyone should be scared of her. They all should be scared, especially if you're lighter than her.

Cyborg has finished 11 of her 13 career wins by knockout. After spending nearly two years away from MMA, she returned in February and earned a first-round TKO over Charmaine Tweet in her first Invicta title defense. It was the same carnivorous destruction fans have come to expect from the women's MMA legend.

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Joe Rogan: Everyone Should Fear Cyborg at 145, Including Ronda Rousey

Scientists control the flight of cyborg beetles for the first time

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Giant flower beetles were fitted with radio transmitters so scientists could make them take off, land, hover and turn left and right in the air Technology could lead to the insects being used as surveillance drones In the short-term it's letresearcherslearn more about the insect's muscles Engineers found that a muscle in the articulation of insect wings, plays a key function in the beetle's ability to steer left or right

By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline

Published: 06:24 EST, 17 March 2015 | Updated: 06:56 EST, 17 March 2015

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Engineers may have already created cyborg cockroaches, but now they have fitted beetles with radio transmitter backpacks, which enable them to control the flight of insects in mid-air for the first time.

Researchers were able to make the beetles take off and land, as well as hover in mid-air and turn left and right on a whim.

The technology could eventually lead to the insects being used as surveillance drones in disaster areas.

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Scientists control the flight of cyborg beetles for the first time

Ronda Rousey's Mom Says Her Daughter Will Break Her Archrival's Arm

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The Ronda Rousey-Cris Cyborg storyline continues. Rousey's outspoken mother, Dr. AnnMaria De Mars, chimed in with how she thinks the fight will play out.

Per Submission Radio, as transcribed by Bloody Elbow's Anton Tabuena, De Mars stated unequivocallyRousey will break Cyborg's arm if they were to ever fight.

"Oh, Ronda will break her arm," De Mars said. "I can say that right now. Ill tell you two things: Ronda will break her arm, and Ronda will not go up in weight."

The highly anticipated hypothetical fight is still a ways off, but the interest continues to grow.

De Mars is never one to mince words, and her latest comments will be sure to invoke a response by the Brazilian powerhouse.

Rousey and Cyborg, for lack of a better comparison, are the Mayweather and Pacquiao of women's MMA. It's a fight fans have demanded for years, but it has not happened forvarious reasons. The trash talk between the two goes back years and never fails to entertain.

The main obstacle is that they fight in different weight classes.

Rousey is the 135-pound UFC champion, and Cyborg competes at 145 pounds, a weight class the UFC currently does not support. Cyborg would love for Rousey to move up in weight, but the champ has insisted on numerous occasions that Cyborg cut weight and meet her in her division.

Cyborghas stated she plansto eventually make it down to 135 pounds. The UFC has said that if she can prove she can make the weight, they'd likely sign her.

Mayweather-Pacquiao finally got signed in 2015. Hopefully, Rousey-Cyborg gets done in 2016. Rousey has quickly squashed just about every contender in her division currently signed to the UFC. Cyborg is not only the last legitimate threat out there, but she just might be able to beat the unbeatable Rousey.

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Ronda Rousey's Mom Says Her Daughter Will Break Her Archrival's Arm

Cyborg beetle research allows free-flight study of insects

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VIDEO:This is a research video showing remote-controlled steering of a giant flower beetle flying untethered. view more

Berkeley -- Hard-wiring beetles for radio-controlled flight turns out to be a fitting way to learn more about their biology. Cyborg insect research led by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is enabling new revelations about a muscle used by beetles for finely graded turns.

By strapping tiny computers and wireless radios onto the backs of giant flower beetles and recording neuromuscular data as the bugs flew untethered, scientists determined that a muscle known for controlling the folding of wings was also critical to steering. The researchers then used that information to improve the precision of the beetles' remote-controlled turns.

This study, to be published Monday, March 16, in the journal Current Biology, showcases the potential of wireless sensors in biological research. Research in this field could also lead to applications such as tools to aid search-and-rescue operations in areas too dangerous for humans.

"This is a demonstration of how tiny electronics can answer interesting, fundamental questions for the larger scientific community," said Michel Maharbiz, an associate professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the study's principal investigator. "Biologists trying to record and study flying insects typically had to do so with the subject tethered. It had been unclear if tethering interfered with the insect's natural flight motions."

In particular, the researchers said, it had been difficult to elucidate the role that smaller muscles play in fine steering. What the new study found was that the coleopteran third axillary sclerite (3Ax) muscle, found in the articulation of insect wings, plays a key function in the beetle's ability to steer left or right.

"Since the 1800s, this coleopteran muscle was thought to function solely in wing folding," said study lead author Hirotaka Sato, an assistant professor at NTU's School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. "Our wireless system allows us to record neuromuscular movements in natural, free flight, so we see now that this muscle is also used for turning."

Steering muscle put to the test

The researchers tested the function of this muscle by stimulating it during flight for graded turns that were more controlled than previous versions of the cyborg beetle.

Experiments were done with Mecynorrhina torquata, or giant flower beetles. They averaged 6 centimeters in length and 8 grams in weight, about as heavy as a $1 coin.

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Cyborg beetle research allows free-flight study of insects

Backpack Turns a Beetle Into a Remote-Controlled Cyborg

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In the video above, watch closely for the flying insect. It swerves left and right, zigzagging across the room. Nothing too remarkable, reallyuntil you realize that someone is controlling the insect. With a remote control. By attaching a tiny backpack onto a beetle, researchers can electrically stimulate tiny muscles below its wings, creating a living mini-copter that they can steer with amazing precision. (Just look at those smooth banking turns!)

Researchers have created remote-controlled crawling insects before, forcing a bugs legs to move by electrically stimulating its muscles. Its simple enough that you can even buy your own kit to commandeer a cockroach at home. But flying bugs are harder to hijack. Scientists pulled it off for the first time in 2009, when a team at the University of California, Berkeley led by engineer Michel Maharbiz debuted their first remote-controlled beetle. They used electrical stimulation to tell the beetles wings to start and stop flapping, making the beetle go up and down. But without understanding the bugs steering muscles,their lateral control left something to be desired.

Now, in a new study, the same researchers have found those musclestiny ones below the wings with a mouthful of a name:the coleopteran third axillary sclerite. Entomologists thought the muscle was only important for folding the wings back when the bugs not in flight, but it turns out that its critical for flyingand, in particular, steering. It might sound creepyis this part of a plot to create an army swarm of remote-controlled cyborg beetles to take over the world? But the story Im interested in isnt that I want to control an insect in free flight for some nefarious purpose, says Maharbiz. Its really that this kind of technology is very useful as tools to figure out whats going on in the insect.

To show how the muscle steers, the researchers fitted a giant flower beetle, just over two inches long, with a microcontroller and a wireless receiver and transmitter weighing as much as a paperclip (the bugs can carry 20 percent of their weight, so the cargowasnt a problem). Electrodes fire pulses into the beetles muscleszap the steering muscles with more frequent electrical pulses, and they contract more, turning the wing harder. About 25 seconds into the video, you can see how an increase in pulse frequency, from 70 to 90 times a second, forces the beetle into a tighter turn.

The bug in the video can only be steered left or right, but scientists could equip it to be controlled it in other directions. And the better the control gets, the more useful these bugs could potentially be outside the scope of entomological anatomy research. Like search and rescue. Just imagine: In the aftermath of an earthquake, FEMA could come to the rescue with bugs outfitted with temperature sensors, sending them to find the body heat of survivors buried in the rubble.

Engineers are developing their own robotic flyers to do the same thing, like these small flying or crawling robots. But its tough to beat the built-in flying biology of a bug. Insects are just amazing fliers compared to anything we can build at that scale, Maharbiz says. Cyborg bugs have the potential to be enormously usefuljust dont let the remote control fall in the wrong hands.

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Backpack Turns a Beetle Into a Remote-Controlled Cyborg

[promod] iNTERLATE vs Cyborg Factory Athens Elysium Cup (mp_strike, Bo3)(2/2) – Video

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[promod] iNTERLATE vs Cyborg Factory Athens Elysium Cup (mp_strike, Bo3)(2/2)
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[promod] iNTERLATE vs Cyborg Factory Athens Elysium Cup (mp_strike, Bo3)(2/2) - Video


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