The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a micro-robotics platform.

Abstract Engineering small autonomous agents capable of operating in the microscale environment remains a key challenge, with current systems still evolving. Our study explores the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster , a classic model system in biology and a species adept at microscale interaction, as a biological platform for micro-robotics. Initially, we focus on remotely directing the walking paths of fruit flies in an experimental arena. We accomplish this through two distinct approaches: harnessing the fruit flies’ opto-motor response and optogenetic modulation of its olfactory system. These techniques facilitate reliable and repeated guidance of flies between arbitrary spatial locations. We guide flies along predetermined trajectories, enabling them to scribe patterns resembling textual characters through their locomotion. We enhance olfactory-guided navigation through additional optogenetic activation of positive valence mushroom body output neurons. We extend this control to collective behaviors in shared spaces and navigation through constrained maze-like environments. We further use our guidance technique to enable flies to carry a load across designated points in space, establishing the upper bound on their weight carrying capabilities. Additionally, we demonstrate that visual guidance can facilitate novel interactions between flies and objects, showing that flies can consistently relocate a small spherical object over significant distances. Beyond expanding tools available for micro-robotics, these novel behavioral contexts can provide insights into the neurological basis of behavior in fruit flies.