Future bugs will be harder to swat down especially when they're cyborg versions of the insects of today. Scientists at the University of Michigan are developing enhanced insects that can be used to scout out environments that are dangerous to humans.

Professor Khalil Najafi, the chair of electrical and computer engineering, and doctoral student Erkan Aktakka are researching ways to attach a device to insects that can harvest the energy from their wing movements to power tiny sensors like cameras or gas sensors.

"Through energy scavenging, we could potentially power cameras, microphones and other sensors and communications equipment that an insect could carry aboard a tiny backpack," Najafi said. "We could then send these 'bugged' bugs into dangerous or enclosed environments where we would not want humans to go."

The researchers have developed a spiral piezoelectric generator that converts the kinetic energy from the insect's wing movement into electricity. The electricity generated will power the electronic devices implanted in the insect such as a camera or microphone. If successful the cyborg insects can be deployed in rescue efforts in dangerous environments like Japan's Fukushima plant.

The team describes their findings in a paper called "Energy scavenging from insect flight" published in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

The research was funded by the Hybrid Insect Micro Electromechanical Systems program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under grant No. N66001-07-1-2006.

DARPA has been developing cyborg insects for years. There have been efforts at training insects and bugs to sniff out toxic substances. DARPA has also researched ways to implement a linked army of cyborg insects that can detect weaponized chemicals. A cyborg insect can instantly relay information about dangerous chemicals to any other cyborg insect in the network. The network can increase the bugs' range of detection.