New dimension in drone design

Drones now come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are used for everything from surveillance to mapping. Although drones used to be limited (somewhat controversially) to combat and warfare situations, an increasing number of commercial drones are increasingly giving a good name to these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), to give their formal name.

There is no question that drones will become even more complex over the next few decades, raising many ethical questions as well in the process. Just do not expect scientists and investors to conform to known shapes as they develop new drones.

For example, researchers at the New York University have developed a miniature robot that stays in flight with movements similar to those of a swimming jellyfish. The small prototype weighs just two grams and stays afloat with four wings that flap up and down - similar to the movements of a bobbing jellyfish.

“Our guy sort of squeezes his wings together to shoot air down to generate the lift to keep it up in the air," says Leif Ristroph, a professor at NYU who led the research. Similar, he says, to the way a jellyfish squeezes and contracts its bell to propel forward in water. 

This flying jellyfish has opened up tantalising possibilities - it could usher in an era of small flying robots used for search-and-rescue missions, surveillance, and traffic monitoring. If economies of scale can be achieved, they could become very affordable in a decade or so. 

The device, presented at an American Physical Society meeting this week, still needs to be hooked to a power source and cannot steer completely on its own. The device will have a handful of applications at launch including air quality control and search missions in dangerous areas. 

What this means is that scientists are thinking outside the box to design new inventions. In the conventional sense of the word, jellyfish do not fly. However, in this case scientists have adapted that motion to a flying vehicle or robot. Scientists are still learning about marine creatures and insects and it is apparent that a lot of things can be done by mimicking their motions through mechanical devices.

Ristroph explained this phenomenon. “There's a lot of interest in building the sort of small scale manoeuvrable hovering air vehicles. Most of them are directly inspired by insects, meaning they actually have some mechanism that beats wings the way an insect beats its wings. The concept behind our vehicle was to think of new ways to fly, basically. Ways that may not show up in nature, and to see if there was any advantage for that.”

This is not the first time that researchers have created small aerial robots. Just a few months ago, Harvard researchers created a tiny RoboBee that could fly just like a real bee flapping its wings 120 times a second. It was the first controlled flight of an insect-like robot.

Although the word artificial intelligence is often used in the context of robots, the two are still not fused together. Most of these robots still require human control and intervention, though the jellyfish drone does have some sort of autonomous control. These things differ from their real life counterparts in the sense that they can constantly assess their environment, adjusting their movements accordingly. It will take a few decades to produce drones that can think for themselves and take decisions mid-air or wherever they are.

I used the word “wherever” here because we normally think of drones as flying objects. They do not necessarily have to fly. A drone can inspect a pipeline or swim underwater as well. In fact, the US Navy and many other organisations are reportedly turning their attention to developing unmanned undersea vehicles. Again, the jellyfish model has been touted as an efficient way to propel objects (unmanned undersea vehicles) underwater.

At university labs across the US, the Pentagon's Office of Naval Research (ONR) is bankrolling the creation of robotic jellyfish that mimic the efficient natural movements of the ocean creature (the jellyfish is a remarkable swimmer) and that could ultimately be useful in underwater surveillance and search-and-rescue missions. Such robots could also theoretically be powered by hydrogen. They are also looking at the eel and tuna as possible models for underwater robots and vehicles. They could one day replace expensive submarines and submersibles.

As an aside, one lesson we can draw from this development is the increasing role played by universities in cutting edge research in many other countries. Our universities should also initiate advanced research in a variety of fields in collaboration with the private sector, the National Science Foundation and other research institutions.

At the end of the day, we may have to change the way we think about flight and underwater propulsion. Scientists should be open-minded and try different ways of flight. An idea that may appear to be totally impractical could be the basis for the next drone.

There is little doubt that scientists will improvise and improvise their drone designs, along with advances in battery, camera, flight, sensor, computing power and other factors. However, fears have been expressed that drones could be a threat to privacy and individual freedom. My neighbour could theoretically send a small commercial drone to hover above my house and see what I am up to. Such an act is an invasion of one’s privacy. The rules will have to be re-written in this regard, because even five years ago that would have been unthinkable.

When so many drones eventually take to the skies, who will regulate and control the airspace? How do we ensure the right to privacy? How will we know that drones are used only for good purposes? These are hard questions to answer. But for the moment, the good they can do, as I have outlined above, potentially far outweigh the misdeeds. However, Governments around the world will have to agree on and formulate strict laws on the use of both commercial and private drones.