Army plans robo-insects

WASHINGTON - On the battlefield of the future, mecha-moths and termite terminators will roam where humans cannot, if the Pentagon gets its way.

American defence experts want to create an army of remote-controlled cyber insects that can check explosives and gather battlefield intelligence.

The Defence Advance Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is touting for effective methods of inserting microchips into moths at the pupa stage, to turn them into weapons.

In its project document, Darpa said it believed it could harness the evolutionary stage of metamorphosis to further its plans for a robot army.

"Through each metamorphic stage, the insect body goes through a renewal process that can heel wounds and reposition organs around foreign objects," the document said.

The winning bidder will have to deliver "an insect within five metres of a specific target 100 metres away" and "transmit data from relevant sensors about the surrounding environment".

However, Oxford University entomologist Dr George Gavin told the BBC that the idea was "ludicrous".

"What adult insects want to do is reproduce and lay eggs. You would have to rewire the entire brain."