Flight Initiation and Directional Control of Beetles by Microthermal Stimulation

This paper presents the efforts at micro thermal stimulation to initiate the flight and control the direction of beetles. Experiments were carried out by mounting micro thermal stimulators at the base of the antenna of the Green June beetle (Cotinis nitida). Preliminary in vivo experiments with resistive micro-heaters demonstrate that the beetle generates a torque of 18mN-mm at an estimated temperature of 43°C at the beetle-heater interface. These experiments utilized a micromachined resistive heater fabricated from bulk Ni foil. Additional experiments with a beetle carcass indicate that ultrasonic heating could be more effective, providing an estimated interface temperature of 43 ° C with 160 mW power. A circular PZT-5H disk of 3.2 mm diameter was used in the experiments.