The team at the University of Washington in the US drew inspiration from the insects to create its low-powered camera system.
Its beetle-cam can stream up to five frames per second of low-resolution, black and white footage to a nearby smartphone.
The research was published in the Science Robotics journal.
The entire camera rig weighs just 250 milligrams, which is about a tenth of the weight of a playing card.
While the sensor itself is low resolution, capturing just 160 by 120 pixel images, it is mounted on a mechanical arm that can shift from side to side.
That allows the camera to look side to side and scan the environment, just like a beetle, and capture a higher-resolution panoramic image.
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