Cyborg cockroaches dive for up to three hours thanks to 3D printing

A cockroach moves underwater, guided remotely, with a flexible shell around its abdomen and an oxygen reservoir on its back. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University and Waseda University designed this 3D-printed suit to turn Madagascar hissing cockroaches into amphibious helpers. Equipped insects remained active underwater for up to three hours; without the suit, their endurance did not exceed 2 min.

The problem lay in their breathing. Cockroaches use spiracles, small openings located along their sides. When submerged, these passages no longer receive air. The suit gets around the obstacle: a sponge impregnated with manganese dioxide reacts with hydrogen peroxide to produce oxygen, which is then carried through thin silicone tubes to the respiratory openings.

Each component is tailored to the insect’s body. The reservoir is printed in a transparent PMMA-type resin, while the shell uses a flexible resin that follows the insect’s movements. The connectors are also custom-made, because the two pairs of spiracles are not the same shape. 3D printing thus makes it possible to combine three difficult-to-reconcile constraints: lightness, watertightness and freedom of movement.

The choice of cockroach is based on its natural abilities. It can slip through gaps just a few millimeters wide, navigate irregular debris and quickly get back on its feet after a fall. The cyborg insects developed by Hirotaka Sato’s team have already been deployed in search-and-rescue operations, notably during Operation Lionheart, after the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar in March 2025. The team is now targeting infrastructure inspection.

So what does this mean in practice? This technology could send a lightweight device into flooded, narrow or oxygen-poor spaces, where humans and conventional robots reach their limits. It is not yet a standard rescue tool: the underwater suit is the result of a study, and its performance still needs to be tested in real-world conditions. The researchers also believe that an adaptation could work for grasshoppers and beetles, which breathe through a comparable spiracle system.