From Control to Listening: My Research Vision
I made this short film to share something I find difficult to explain in a single sentence.
My name is Masum. I am a PhD researcher at The University of Osaka, working on cyborg insect robotics. But for me, this research is about something much simpler and much deeper than robotics alone.
When I first started working with insects in the lab, I studied how they sense their environment, how they respond to light and vibration, and how their tiny nervous systems process the world around them. Again and again, I found myself thinking the same thing:
This insect already knows things we do not.
Insects respond to chemical, thermal, visual, and mechanical cues in ways that are deeply shaped by evolution. They can detect changes in their surroundings, react to weak signals, and navigate complex environments with a level of efficiency that is still difficult for artificial systems to reproduce.
This led me to the question that now drives my research:
What if we stopped trying only to control living systems and started trying to understand them instead?
What if technology could help us listen to what insects, animals, plants, and ecosystems are already saying about the state of our shared environment?
Five Beings. One Table.
This film is built around a simple idea: five beings around one table.
A human.
An insect.
An animal.
A plant.
An artificial intelligence system.
Each one shares the same world, but each senses it differently. The table represents a common space for interaction, responsibility, and exchange.
All living organisms continuously respond to changes in their environment in order to survive. Humans are also part of this natural process. However, human activities now alter the environment more rapidly and on a far greater scale than those of any other species.
For this reason, I believe the future of technology should not only be about faster machines, stronger control, or higher automation. It should also be about better listening.
When every participant can listen and respond, whether through biological signals, behavioral cues, or technological mediation, meaningful cooperation becomes possible.
From Insect Perception to Ecosystem Harmony
The visual below summarizes the long-term direction of my research.
It begins with insects as natural connectors within ecosystems. Insects interact with plants, animals, humans, and environmental changes. They are not isolated organisms; they are part of a living communication network.
My research begins from one small part of this larger system: understanding how insects perceive and respond to their surroundings.
In my recent work on bio-intelligent cyborg insects, I used physiological and behavioral signals from a Madagascar hissing cockroach to estimate how the insect responds to different environmental conditions. Instead of treating the insect only as a biological machine to be commanded, this approach asks whether the insect’s own internal signals can help us understand its state, perception, and interaction with the world.
This is a first technical step toward a larger vision:
AI that does not simply control nature, but helps decode and translate the signals already moving through living ecosystems.
In this vision, technology becomes a bridge between humans, insects, animals, plants, and the environment.
How My Paper Connects to This Vision
My recent research paper is one step toward this larger goal.
In the paper, I explored a perception-driven bio-intelligent cyborg insect system. The main idea was to move beyond simple external control and instead use the insect’s own physiological and behavioral signals to understand how it responds to different environmental stimuli.
Using a Madagascar hissing cockroach as the experimental platform, I measured multimodal signals such as body motion, heartbeat activity, and neural-related features. These signals were analyzed using machine learning to estimate environment-associated internal states under different conditions, including natural, UV, chemical, heat, and food-related stimuli.
The system then used this estimated state in a closed-loop framework to adapt stimulation.
For me, the most important meaning of this work is not only control. It is a step toward listening.
The insect is not treated only as a tool or robot. It is treated as a living system with its own sensory world. By learning from its physiological and behavioral responses, technology can begin to form a more respectful and cooperative relationship with biological organisms.
This paper is therefore one small technical step toward my larger vision: building systems that can interpret biological signals, understand environmental change through living organisms, and eventually support more resilient and sustainable ecosystems.
Paper link : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40648-026-00344-7
Technology as a Bridge, Not a Replacement
I do not believe technology should replace nature.
I believe technology should help us understand nature more deeply.
By better understanding and connecting the diverse ways in which humans, non-human species, and technological systems communicate, we may be able to create ecosystems that are more resilient, equitable, and sustainable.
When designed and applied ethically, artificial intelligence can serve as a bridge. It can help translate biological signals, share information across species and systems, and support harmony rather than disruption.
This is not a finished answer.
It is a direction.
It is a vision I am spending my research life working toward:
one insect, one signal, one small discovery at a time.
I hope it makes you think.
— Masum
The University of Osaka