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

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.