Terrestrial Cyborg Insects for Real‐Life Applications

Since 1997, terrestrial cyborg insects have emerged as a promising alternative to insect‐scale artificial robots for real‐world applications, such as urban search and rescue or exploration in complex environments, due to their self‐powered and self‐adaptable organic bodies with naturally integrated sensors. Over the last two decades, this field has been growing rapidly with novel methodologies for locomotion control of living insects and the integration of onboard miniature devices, which have been used not only for environmental data collection but also for unlocking hybrid abilities of insect species. These developments require a range of interdisciplinary expertise from researchers, including both biology and engineering backgrounds. As such, this review aims to provide a comprehensive perspective on the current state of the art through three aspects: locomotion capabilities with corresponding proactive control methods for terrestrial insects, challenges with proposed solutions, and practical applications based on developed projects. With in‐depth analysis and classification of influential studies, this work outlines clear research directions to support the advancement of terrestrial cyborg insect technology toward real‐world deployment and scalable production in the near future.