US Military Spawns Stealthy Robotic Hummingbirds

[Earnest Cavalli]

US Military Spawns Stealthy Robotic Hummingbirds


In their quest to create the perfect spy, US military researchers have given the lowly hummingbird a mechanical upgrade.

Military surveillance is a trick business. The goal is to learn everything you can about an area, without alerting enemies to your presence. Human spies cost millions to train, suffer from fatigue and all too often sound just like David Hayter.

Thus, the US military is hoping robots can lend a mechanical hand to the fight. Specifically, tiny winged robots designed to look completely innocuous while they spy on targets.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a military research group most famous for creating the direct predecessor to our modern Internet, has spent the last few years (and likely millions of dollars) on the "Nano Air Vehicle" [http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/DSO/Programs/Nano_Air_Vehicle_%28NAV%29.aspx] program. NAV's goal is to develop "an extremely small, ultra lightweight air vehicle system (less than 15 centimeters and less than 20 grams) with the potential to perform indoor and outdoor military missions."

More important to that whole "completely innocuous" bit is the program's aim to create a vehicle that remains aloft via flapping robotic wings. Traditional jet propulsion is great for high speed air travel, but it's not ideal for hovering over an area and snapping pictures. Helicopter-style rotors would work better, but they lack a capacity for agile movement, and are extremely visible in any environment not constructed entirely of ceiling fans.

By comparison, a tiny bird (and robots designed to exactly mimic tiny birds) can flit around an area in any direction, and are able to blend in with the wildlife of almost any region on Earth.

The NAV program is still a few years from pressing robotic hummingbirds into military service, but newly revealed video evidence of the 'bots in action looks very promising.

Well, once you get past the hilarious "robot hummingbirds crashing into walls" segment anyway. Everything beyond that is impressively realistic faux birds doing things that even their fleshy counterparts can't match.

Source: io9 [http://io9.com/5808723/see-the-evolution-of-the-us-militarys-robotic-hummingbird]

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[Zero_ctrl]

The big problem with it is noise. Though it's hard to judge that from a video.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

That's pretty darn neat... though now I won't be able to look at a hummingbird without momentarily questioning whether someone is spying on me or not. Yay for more reasons to be paranoid!

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

That is AWESOME.

...Hopefully it won't end up causing the extinction of the humming bird by paranoid soliders, though...

 

[Agiel7]

Think we saw this in the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier demo from E3 yesterday. Good to see that Ubisoft still does some modicum of research for their games.

 

[pliusmannn]

if they show this, then imagine what they do not show, also from the video, the sound is enormous, birds don't make that much

 

[Quaxar]

Wait, since when is this new news? I've read an article about DARPA's hummingbirds about half a year ago or so...

 

[Findlebob]

Isnt that a bit loud for indoor sneaking.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

The big problem with it is noise. Though it's hard to judge that from a video.

I was honestly about to say the same thing. Its kinda hard to camouflage a robotic helicopter as a hummingbird when the rotor makes a noise like that.

 

[Akytalusia]

The big problem with it is noise. Though it's hard to judge that from a video.

I was honestly about to say the same thing. Its kinda hard to camouflage a robotic helicopter as a hummingbird when the rotor makes a noise like that.

yeah i was gonna post that too. it's just too noisy. that'll get swatted out of the air the moment it gets anywhere near enemy space, long before it records anything interesting.

 

[FalloutJack]

That's pretty darn neat... though now I won't be able to look at a hummingbird without momentarily questioning whether someone is spying on me or not. Yay for more reasons to be paranoid!

Nonsense. REAL hummingbirds are quiet, and almost certainly more interested in a flower than watching human activity. You're safe.

Now, this is a decent idea, except for the stealth part. I'm afraid that hummingbird would scare away actual birds and give away its position. However, in all fairness, I see no reason why it wouldn't be the beginning of a whole new surveillance technology overall. Patrol buildings with little robots who are flying cameras instead of fixed ones that can be tampered with. If something happens to them without explanation, you can be CERTAIN that something is wrong and act accordingly.

 

[Duraji]

I see everyone else beat me to it. Yeah, they're way too loud, and therefore useless for actual espionage. Camera quality looks crap, too, why a fisheye lens?

 

[godofallu]

Isn't the entire point of something like this to exist, while noone else knows it exists?

Now the terrorists will see the weird looking hummingbird and know it's a spy. Of course it was never a practical invention anyways, otherwise they wouldn't reveal it to the public.

 

[similar.squirrel]

This is really cool. But if this leads to the extinction of several species at the hands of impressionable guerillas, DARPA will have a lot to answer for.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

The big problem with it is noise. Though it's hard to judge that from a video.

I was honestly about to say the same thing. Its kinda hard to camouflage a robotic helicopter as a hummingbird when the rotor makes a noise like that.

yeah i was gonna post that too. it's just too noisy. that'll get swatted out of the air the moment it gets anywhere near enemy space, long before it records anything interesting.

Not to mention that a Hummingbird is probably the worst bird you could make into a spy. First off, they're native to the America's. Secondly, they're never staying still, that robotic bird is way too slow to even try to be impersonating a hummingbird.

 

[MikailCaboose]

Isn't the entire point of something like this to exist, while noone else knows it exists?

Now the terrorists will see the weird looking hummingbird and know it's a spy. Of course it was never a practical invention anyways, otherwise they wouldn't reveal it to the public.

Or perhaps it's like with Reagan, and just psyching people out over what is actually nothing, like PSYOPS. Or "star wars" for that matter.

 

[SteakHeart]

I can see where this is going to end up.

"Roger, Hummingbird team Alpha Niner to Base, we have entered the hostile's left nostril."

 

[Saleck]

If they don't call at least one of them Kolibri, I'll be disappointed.

 

[teisjm]

When/if it becomes a valible, i give it max 6 months before someone has made a mod for it where it glows and has speakers yelling "Hey, Listen!"
Just need to make the I at the end of the name stand for something...

 

[Ghengis John]

So what's the counter measure to this? Robot Cats?