RoboDragonfly: Tiny Backpack Turns Insect into a Cyborg

To that end, engineers have fitted dragonflies with tiny, backpack-mounted controllers that issue commands directly to the neurons controlling the insects' flight. This project, known as DragonflEye, uses optogenetics, a technique that employs light to transmit signals to neurons. Dragonflies have large heads, long bodies and two pairs of wings that don't always flap in sync, according to a 2007 study published in the journal Physical Review Letters.