"These are remote-controlled cyborg beetles, created at UC Berkeley as part of a larger program funded by (you've guessed it) the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. This is work that, for the first time, has allowed at-a-distance control of a beetle in flight. Electrodes are implanted into each creature's brain and muscles, and the creature carries a small radio receiver, electronics, and a battery pack on its back. Researchers can send appropriate signals to the beetle over the air waves: They can make it take off and fly, steer it left and right, and make it land--that's about the same degree of control we have over those cheap indoor helicopter toys that were a fad last year. In one test, a cyber beetle flew for more than 30 minutes under remote-control."

via http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/two-future-military-robots-scare-bezeesus-out-you