Scientists are turning dragonflies into tiny cyborg drones

One company has decided the ideal tiny drone should take its cues from the natural world of insects — specifically the dragonfly. 

When Draper, an independent biomedical solutions lab, set out to make its own mini-fliers, it cut out the middleman. It got some of the insects and outfitted them with cutting-edge navigation, synthetic biology and neurotechnology systems to create a swarm of cyborg dragonfly drones.     

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The tiny hybrids are part of an internal R&D project at Draper called, appropriately, DragonflEye. 

"DragonflEye is a totally new kind of micro-aerial vehicle that’s smaller, lighter and stealthier than anything else that’s manmade,” said the program's principal investigator Jesse J. Wheeler in an interview posted online by the company. “This system pushes the boundaries of energy harvesting, motion sensing, algorithms, miniaturization and optogenetics, all in a system small enough for an insect to wear." Read more...

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