Engineers have made a new tiny DelFly Micro air vehicle. This successor to the DelFly I and II weighs barely 3 grams, and with its flapping wings is very similar to a dragonfly. Ultra-small, remote-controlled micro aircraft with cameras, such as this DelFly, may well be used in the future for observation flights in difficult-to-reach or dangerous areas.
The DelFly Micro is a ‘Micro Air Vehicle’, an exceptionally small remote-controlled aircraft with camera and image recognition software. The Micro, weighing just 3 grams and measuring 10 cm (wingtip to wingtip) is the considerably smaller successor to the successful DelFly I and DelFly II. The DelFly Micro, with its minuscule battery weighing just 1 gram, can fly for approximately three minutes and has a maximum speed of 5 m/s.
The ‘dragonfly’ has a tiny camera (about 0.5 grams) on board that transmits its signals to a ground station. With software developed by TU Delft itself, objects can then be recognised independently. The camera transmits TV quality images, and therefore allows the DelFly II to be operated from the computer. It can be manoeuvred using a joystick as if the operator was actually in the cockpit of the aircraft. The aim is to be able to do this with the DelFly Micro too.
Big Brother will be flying through your picnic – and you won’t even notice.
BzzzzBzzzzzBzzzzzz….SWAT!..Splat!
“Damn skeeters” ~ Bubba
The black helicopters have been scaled down.
1,
That was what happened in The Fifth Element…
Just imagine how this could be used by the military against the terrorists.
“Mohammad, Shhhh! Be Quiet! Was that a butterfly I just heard?”
Take a guess how long before the ACLU attempts to fight this in court.
Aerial Petroleum Distillates and a Match make an effective flame thrower to neutralize such bugs !!!
Three grams? Geez the enemy could fart half a mile away and that thing would crash. Or maybe it might just be crazy enough to work
What is the designation “maximum speed of 5 m/s,” with a flight duration of about three minutes? That can’t be 5 meters per second, could it?
Real dragonflies have four wings which allow them to move forward at about 3/4s of a meter per second, can hover and if I recall correctly, can fly backward at about a third of that rate. For a lot longer than three minutes.
They also have three eyes, specialized in their upper half to see in ultraviolet (if I recall) and the lower half to see especially well in the blue-green frequencies. That makes them especially well able to munch a bunch of mosquitoes, even in low light.
I know they’re not much use in reporting back information they’ve seen, however.
The answer to the spy industry’s wish to be “a fly on the wall.”
Future picnics will require the electronic jamming equivalent of Off! or, citronella candles.
“Big Brother will be flying through your picnic – and you won’t even notice.”
You do know that the larger observation units are now being armed. I wonder what they will stick on one of these?
They’ll have to count on clear days with near zero winds, to keep something so small from being knocked out of the sky. But it could be put to use inside large indoor fairs, shopping malls, airport terminals, and such. To cover places where they stationary cameras don’t. Outdoor patrols would still need the heavier duty, gas powered drones, against the elements. But it’s strange that most cities still choose fleets of multi-million dollar helicopters. And don’t think the camera drones as an economic alternative. Certainly a far safer one, if it crashes. I suspect these things are being snubbed, by the lobbyists for manned copter makers.