“Third Thumb” Augmentation Changes the Way we Think of Prosthetics
To the window to the wall….is where your future drone might land next. Today’s consumer drones, however advanced they might be, are still limited in their capacities to land. Because of such, this also limits where they can operate.
This might all change thanks to the work of Stanford researchers who’ve engineered a drone capable of attaching itself on both walls and ceilings.
“Perching allows a quadrotor to shut down its power-hungry motors and let its sensors get to work acquiring data over an extended period of time, tracking parameters like the stability of a building after an earthquake, the nocturnal activity of a jaguar, or enemy troop movements.”
– Morgan Pope, IEEE
This perching effect is currently still in its experimental phase as Stanford researchers continue to work on its efficiency, but they say that isn’t long before consumer drones will be able to acquire a similar effect. Below is a video of the drone successfully operating as functioned.
Photo Credit: Stanford
To achieve the effect of perching itself onto walls and ceilings, drones are attached with textured pads known as “microspines” which uses friction in a similar effect which allows geckos to climb walls. In order to direct itself to these surfaces, the drone uses a tail spin to help maneuver the drone towards the wall or ceiling and then proceeds by using the drone’s thrust for the microspines to make final contact.
As a result, not only will drones be able to alleviate battery use, as opposed to the unvarying act of hovering, they will subsequently be capable of accommodating out of the blue weather conditions, such as raining, to protect itself.
FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
The act of perching onto walls and ceilings is a feature of which all drones in the future will be capable of, regardless of size. The ability to operate like an insect will also affect how we design our future drones, with the all-too-real possibility of drones being designed to appear as insects in themselves. This biomimicry will not only help increase the efficiency of future machines, such as drones, but will altogether change the way we see and use them for innumerable reasons. We might not be there just yet, but with time, the next time you swat at a pesky flying insect that just doesn’t seem to leave you alone, it might very well be a drone.
About the author
B.J. Murphy is the Editor and Social Media Manager of Serious Wonder. He is a futurist, philosopher, activist, author and poet. B.J. is an Affiliate Scholar for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) and an Ambassador for the robotics company Humai.
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