USAF’s elite research lab is working with designers from Airion Health LLC to prototype a remote-controlled mini air vehicle that can imitate either insect or bird flight, for surveillance purposes by early next year.
The microdrone will have the ability to change velocity without the support of a high-powered computer, according to a service release that states the team are using a 2014 patent for their project.
“Controllable forces would be generated by the wings based on position and velocity profiles, resulting in time-varying wing upstrokes and downstrokes, which, at times, may be asymmetrical,” said USAF.
The microdrone could be used for surveillance in the field or over military bases; or to stake out targets before personnel or other aircraft get to the battlefield, military.com reported.
In January this year the service signed a non-exclusive patent license agreement, or PLA, with Airion for the licensing of the government-owned invention.
While mini air vehicles, or MAVs, are a fascinating development from a surveillance perspective, they also highlight the risks of a future in which tiny drones are capable of undertaking covert operations of all kinds.
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