Using a mathematical formula, a computer translated the signals into action, making the robot move.
To make the moth shift its gaze, researchers placed the robo-moth on a circular platform surrounded by a 14-inch-high revolving wall painted with vertical stripes. As the wall rotated clockwise, the moth's eyes tracked the stripes. When the striped wall moved in the opposite direction, so did the moth's eyes.
The longest transmission detected from the moth's brain lasted 88 seconds, said coauthor Timothy Melano, a graduate student who worked on the project.
Higgins said a robot hooked into the moth's sophisticated olfactory system might one day be used to detect bombs. After all, he said, "if it blows up, all you've lost is a moth."
But many hurdles remain in the way of such a device.
Although the moth can direct the robot to turn left or right, it cannot make the robot move forward or backward. Signal detection also needs improvement, Higgins said.
To use a robo-moth as a bomb-sniffing device, researchers would have to get the insect to go where it was needed. At this point, researchers have no way of detecting or directing the insect's intentions.
"We have taken baby steps," Higgins said.
denise.gellene@latimes.com
