Stanford engineers have reverse engineered the amazing talons of the peregrine falcon to create a drone that can perch on trees and potentially capture other drones, possibly without damaging them. The point of perching is that hovering uses a lot of battery life, but landing on the ground means you lose the drone's capabilities.
Potential use cases include acting as a camera trap in rainforest canopies or in high canopies such as redwood or Scots pine forests (counting crested tits!), assisting with wildfire watch in California, or taking out drones that fly too close to airports in a less disruptive manner than having to shoot them down.
Or...well, we can think of a lot. Some of them more nefarious (surveillance) than others. It's also kind of adorable.
No comments:
Post a Comment