Nano-Biotechnology

Are We Being Spied by Insect Robots?

Or is it just us being paranoid

By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

18th of October 2007, 17:06 GMT

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In fairy tales, the characters turn into flies and get everywhere they want, listening to what's cooking behind any door. Now, when you say 'there are bugs in this room', you automatically send a message with double meaning, one of which is related to the new-generation devices.

Lately, increasingly more

witnesses talk about some weird insects, dragonflies which they spotted at various political events in Washington and New York. Even if the American government and security agencies have admitted they make intensive researches in the domain of the spying devices, none has admitted using such flying devices. "If you find something, let me know.", said Gary Anderson, from the Defense Department's Rapid Reaction Technology Office.

"They look like dragonflies or mini helicopters" counted Vanessa Alarcon, a student which states she saw the devices while participating in an anti-war meeting in Lafayette Square.

The American Army employed such "fly-robots" even during the Second World War, but their number was very small, and the fabrication technology was much more primitive. "I'd never seen anything like it in my life... they were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' ", said Bernard Crane, a Washington lawyer, who participated at the same meeting.

Some federal agencies try to implant in insects some chips that could deliver images, and even more, control their flight. Mini devices of this type could be used to follow terrorists, listen to private conversations, guide missiles to targets or discover survivors of earthquakes trapped amongst wreckages. Still, most experts doubt that the currently available technologies would allow the creation of such robotized insects.

Attempts have been made by Pete Valentine, a miniature airplane hobbyist, who combined 2 robotic bird kits and made a dragonfly-like hybrid. Last month, a team at Cornell University presented a research explaining the dragonflies' flight and how they tune the movements of their front and rear wings to save energy while hovering. The first steps have already been mare...

TAGS:

insect | robot | spy | flight

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