By leveraging their high mobility and small size, insects have been combined with microcontrollers to build up cyborg insects for various practical applications. Unfortunately, all current cyborg insects rely on implanted electrodes to control their movement, which causes irreversible damage to their organs and muscles. Here, we develop a non-invasive method for cyborg insects to address above issues, using a conformal electrode with an in-situ polymerized ion-conducting layer and an electron-conducting layer. The neural and locomotion responses to the electrical inductions verify the efficient communication between insects and controllers by the non-invasive method. The precise "S" line following of the cyborg insect further demonstrates its potential in practical navigation. The conformal non-invasive electrodes keep the intactness of the insects used while controlling their motion. With the antennae, important olfactory organs of insects preserved, the cyborg insect, in the future, may be endowed with abilities to detect the surrounding environment.

翻译：利用昆虫的高机动性和小体型，研究人员已将其与微控制器结合，构建出可应用于多种实际场景的仿生昆虫。然而，现有仿生昆虫均依赖植入式电极控制运动，这会对昆虫器官和肌肉造成不可逆损伤。本文提出一种针对仿生昆虫的非侵入式方法，通过共形电极（包含原位聚合离子导电层与电子导电层）解决上述问题。电诱导下的神经与运动响应验证了非侵入式方法在昆虫与控制器之间的高效通信性能。仿生昆虫对精确"S"型路径的追踪进一步证明了其在实际导航中的潜力。共形非侵入式电极在控制昆虫运动的同时，能够保持昆虫的完整性。由于保留了昆虫重要的嗅觉器官——触角，未来这种仿生昆虫或将被赋予探测周围环境的能力。