In a study published in the journal PNAS, scientists demonstrated how fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) can be guided like microrobots using light and scent-based cues.
Study: The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a microrobotics platform. Image Credit: nechaevkon/Shutterstock.com
The research team harnessed the flies' natural navigation skills and optogenetic tools to steer individuals and swarms with high accuracy, enabling them to transport cargo, navigate mazes, and even manipulate objects. Unlike traditional microrobots that require complex fabrication, this biohybrid approach taps into the innate abilities of a living organism to achieve precise control at the microscale. The findings open up new possibilities for practical applications such as environmental monitoring and disaster response.
Background
Microrobots are increasingly seen as valuable tools for navigating tight or hazardous environments. However, they often hit roadblocks when it comes to power supply, control systems, and miniaturized manufacturing. Designs inspired by insects have shown promise, but their real-world performance remains limited by computational and fabrication constraints.
This study approaches the challenge from a different angle: using fruit flies themselves as microrobotic agents. Drosophila melanogaster is not only genetically tractable but also has well-mapped neural circuits and evolved locomotion skills, making it an ideal candidate for hybrid biological-engineering systems.
Unlike past biohybrid efforts that lacked fine-tuned control or scalability, this work leverages the fly’s built-in capabilities. Using visual (optomotor) and olfactory (optogenetic) cues, the researchers guided flies with up to 94 % accuracy, enabling them to perform coordinated tasks like maze solving, cargo transport, and synchronized “writing” patterns as a swarm.
Key Findings
The study demonstrated that fruit flies can be remotely directed with high fidelity using two main methods:
- Visual guidance via rotating pinwheel stimuli, which elicited directional walking with 94 % accuracy.
- Olfactory guidance through optogenetic activation of antennal neurons, steering flies with 80 % accuracy. When paired with stimulation of mushroom body output neurons, accuracy rose to 94 %.
These techniques enabled complex, real-time behaviors. Flies traced out patterns such as “HELLO WORLD,” navigated mazes, carried objects up to their body weight (1.1 mg), and relocated 10 mg spheres with 85 % success in moving them more than 5 cm.
Swarm control was also achieved. Three flies simultaneously “wrote” text under visual guidance, while six were managed in group formations using optogenetic stop signals. Even with minor interference when flies overlapped spatial cues (< 6.7 %), the system remained robust and coordinated.
Altogether, the results show that Drosophila can serve as a scalable, adaptable microrobotic platform, sidestepping the limitations of traditional microrobot design and fabrication.
Discussion and Implications
What sets this system apart is how it uses the fly’s natural capabilities instead of reinventing them mechanically. Unlike engineered microrobots, which often struggle with mobility and sensing at small scales, fruit flies come equipped with these features.
Remote control was achieved with notable precision—visual cues guided motion with 94 % fidelity, while olfactory cues, enhanced by neural targeting, matched that accuracy. These capabilities translated into real-world utility: cargo transport, object manipulation, maze navigation, and coordinated swarm behaviors.
The flies’ genetic accessibility and neural transparency offer unique opportunities for further customization, whether to refine control, add new behaviors like flight, or adapt them to new tasks such as sensing chemicals or detecting structural debris.
Still, challenges remain. Moving from lab settings to unpredictable natural environments will require new tools, such as autonomous “backpacks” for off-grid operation and improved signal processing to handle competing stimuli.
Nonetheless, the combination of engineered control and biological flexibility creates a compelling new direction for microscale systems—one where living organisms are part of the solution, not just the inspiration.
Conclusion
This research demonstrates that fruit flies can function as controllable microrobots, steered with 80–94 % accuracy using visual and optogenetic olfactory cues. The system enabled a range of tasks—swarm navigation, microscale cargo transport, and object manipulation—without relying on conventional robotic manufacturing.
Though deployment in complex environments remains a challenge, the groundwork is in place. Drosophila offers a biologically agile, genetically tunable, and scalable alternative to conventional microrobotics. Future work may expand into flight control, environmental sensing, or agricultural monitoring, pushing the boundaries of what biohybrid systems can do.
Journal Reference
Iwasaki, K., Neuhauser, C., Stokes, C., & Aleksandr Rayshubskiy. (2025). The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a microrobotics platform. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(15). DOI:10.1073/pnas.2426180122. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2426180122
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