Thumb-sized surveillance drones that can fly unnoticed into a terrorist's house or sit on a powerline quietly monitoring people are being developed by the US Air Force.
The drones, about the size of a large bumblebee, can even flap their wings just like the biomechanical movement of flying birds and insects.
A team of researchers inside the US Air Force Research Lab have also developed capabilities that allow the drone to swivel its head, where a camera sits recording who is where and doing what.
READ MORE: How drones are changing the face of policing in Australia
The smaller drones are called micro air vehicles (MAVs) and can surveil homes, neighbourhoods and battlefields in ways previously not possible.
"Traditionally the role of the air force has been very large aircraft," a spokesperson from the US Air Force Research Lab said.
"Lately things have been getting a lot smaller, because you want to go sometimes to places that you can't get in with an F-16 (fighter jet)."
MAVs can conceivably fly covertly inside a building and gather intelligence before returning to base.
According to a statement from Air Force Technology Transfer and Transition, the drones can be deployed in aerial swarm operations and for battlefield situational awareness.
READ MORE: Without space access, battlefields will revert to Saving Private Ryan
The US Air Force signed a patent licence agreement with Los Angeles-based Airion Health in January for the development, manufacture, and marketing of the technology.
The agreement stipulates that the firm must develop a "workable prototype" within 15 months of signing the contract.
READ MORE: Stunning vision as drone crashes into erupting volcano
from 9News https://ift.tt/3zOe3Po
via IFTTT
0 Comments