SINGAPORE – His colleagues at the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) joke whenever they see a cockroach scampering on the floor that he set it loose on them.
But Mr Ong Ka Hing, deputy director of the Robotics, Automation and Unmanned Systems Centre of Expertise at HTX, takes it all in his stride, secure in the knowledge that the cyborg cockroaches he has created are no vermin but life-saving innovations.
For his work, Mr Ong was promoted along with other senior officers from the Home Team. Altogether, 289 officers gained a higher rank or grade, including from the Volunteer Special Constabulary (VSC), Civil Defence Auxiliary Unit (CDAU) and civilian schemes of service.
They received their promotions at a Home Team Promotion Ceremony on April 13 at Orchard Hotel.
The HTX officer, together with Nanyang Technological University and KLASS Engineering and Solutions, developed cyborg cockroaches for disaster response to locate people trapped under rubble.
The roaches are fitted with sensors on their backs and can be controlled remotely.
Mr Ong, 47, told The Straits Times: “It’s pretty common… every time some of my colleagues see a cockroach (run across our path), they’ll look at me and say, ‘Is it yours?’”
But it was no laughing matter when Mr Ong’s cockroaches were deployed on March 28, 2025, after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, killing more than 3,000 people.
A total of 10 cyborg cockroaches – each a Madagascar hissing cockroach measuring about 6cm long – became the first of their kind to be used in a humanitarian operation, marking as well the first time insect-hybrid robots were deployed in the field.
