Institute of Physics. “Nature inspires drones of the future.” sciencedaily.com. ScienceDaily, 23 May 2014. Web. 23 May 2014. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140523094257.htm
This article is similar to the previous article about bats being studied in order to improve roving robots, but this article highlights millimeter sized robots who have the ability to fly. Fourteen separate research teams have been improving how these minute robots move and function when faced with environmental elements such as wind and high temperatures. Their research is animal-based; they study how hawk moths adapt to harsh wind gusts and apply the insect’s movements to their robots. The flying robots have already been employed in Fukushima, Japan in order to survey hazardous nuclear areas and collect information they wouldn’t otherwise be able to collect due to high levels of radiation. The overall goal for these robots is to develop the robots to work in collaboration in the way a flock of birds would move and survey an area. The article briefly touches on the possible environmental benefit of using these robots in regard to assisting pollination and agricultural reconnaissance, but it also touches on a much more dystopian possibility of using these robots for military surveillance. The article masks this possibility as a potential search and rescue tool, which is also plausible, but it made me consider the potentially harmful uses these robots could have in respect to privacy, surveillance, and overall public awareness of being monitored (which is already a developing problem). I think learning from nature and the environment in order to help the environment is a good thing, but if these robots are used for any other potentially cryptic purposes, the notion of learning from nature and subsequently corrupting nature with that knowledge is problematic. I think the idea of a “flock” of robots is really interesting, but I wanted to know more about the positive benefits these robots could have in relation to learning from and improving our environment. I often see technology using nature in order to benefit itself or make itself more efficient, but rarely do I see technology learning from nature for the sole purpose of benefiting nature and the environment exclusively.
