Researchers consider if an army of moths could deploy surveillance sensors in Earth's hard-to-reach places

Nov. 9, 2020
This is a strategy people use in disaster scenarios to deliver food and medical supplies, and is usually done with large planes or helicopters.

SEATTLE – There is so much that we could learn about our home planet if we could only study every inch of it. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult for humans to access and study every part of the world in person. That’s where insects come in. Government Technology reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

9 Nov. 2020 -- A group of researchers at the University of Washington have devised teeny-tiny sensors that could be deposited anywhere in the world that is accessible to a moth. Their system works much like Amazon’s vision of drone delivery services.

The sensor, which weighs less that one hundredth of an ounce, can be attached to the backs of moths with a magnetic pin surrounded by a wire coil. When the moth reaches the desired location, the coil is remotely activated to generate an electrical current.

This causes a tiny magnetic field that pops the pin out of place, and the sensor falls to the ground. Due to its minuscule size, the sensor can fall from a distance as far as 72 feet without incurring any damage for a variety of surveillance applications.

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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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