"Rise of the Insect Drones": The Evolution of Insect Inspired MicroDrones

   

A Mircrodrone Prototype

"Whatever their application, microdrones are no longer a da Vinci-like dream of engineers. They're taking off-agile, resilient, and under their own power." - Rise of the Insect Drones

          The article "Rise of the Insect Drones" by Adam Piore from Popular Science is a scientific article focused on the recent breakthroughs in the aerodynamics of insect inspired microdrones. The article explains how engineers have been creating microdrones, or small drone aircrafts, that are similar to real-life insects and how these microdrones have evolved into very helpful tools that will be released in the very near future. Long ago, microdrones would have seemed completely unrealistic and as it says in the article, "a da Vinci-like dream". But now companies, scientists, and engineers are creating newer and better microdrones all over the world. For years, scientists and engineers have been trying to create microdrones that would be able to hold cameras and survey areas as well as perform other functions such as that of a communication device. When two engineers were relaxing outside of work one day, they saw a fly hit into a glass wall and do the thing their microdrones couldn't do-recover. These scientists and engineers, Richard Guiler and Tom Vaneck, have since been helping lead the creation of microdrones that work like insects, using the same aerodynamics such as wake capture that real flies, bees, butterflies, and other insects use. Since then, microdrones have continued to evolve and develop into tools that will be able to survey disaster sites for survivors and even pollinate flowers! To summarize, these microdrones are very helpful creations that are continuing to advance and though they were once a dream, they are slowly evolving into a not-so-distant reality.

          In the article, the author's claim is that microdrones can be very helpful to society as they become more complex. One way this claim is supported is how the author described the basic evolution of the first microdrone prototype. In the text, it describes the process scientists went through of studying how real flies and insects could bounce right off objects instead of just hitting something and breaking apart. From this, the scientists realized that they had to make "a manmade system that could hit things, recover, and continue on" instead of making a mechanically precise robotic system. By describing this process the scientists went through, the author supports the idea that the microdrones are evolving to become more and more sophisticated or complex because he shows how scientists looked deeper into how real insects work in order to improve their prototypes. Another way the author supports his claim is by describing the functions a microdrone could provide for society. In the article, it says, "RoboBees [the original insect microdrone that is still being developed] could search disaster sites for survivors, monitor traffic, or pollinate crops." This shows how the author supports his claim because he tells the reader the different hard-core and simple tasks these microdrones can perform as they are being continually developed, showing how both complex and useful these insect drones can be. Additionally, the author supports his claim by comparing different kinds of microdrones. Throughout the article, the author mentions RoboBees, the original prototype focused on, as well as many other new ones such as the NanoHummingbird, a tiny hummingbird-like system that can fly against wind and has a camera, communication system, and energy source all attached to it. The article also mentions a robotic dragonfly made by a company that weights less than a quarter but has a high-definition camera and a communication system. These prototypes show how many revolutionary microdrones are being made all over the world. And as they continue to evolve and become more complex, they will become even more helpful in society for hard tasks such as finding survivors or simpler but important tasks such as pollinating flowers and helping to fill the role of endangered bees in the environment. Overall, the author supports his claim in different ways such as describing the evolution and purpose for microdrones and by comparing different microdrone models.

          Furthermore, the author used several different kinds of craft moves in order to engage the reader and get his point across. For example, one craft move the author used was enlarging certain sentences in the article and putting them in bold on the side, separate from the text. One sentence enlarged like this was, "Engineers have developed the first insect-inspired vehicles, opening the door to an entirely new class of machine: the microdrone." This sentence, as well as the others formatted like it, is engaging and keeps the reader focused on the main ideas the author is trying to convey and keeps readers from getting to caught up in minor details. Another example of a craft move is the pictures in the article. In the text, there are several large pictures that keep the reader interested throughout the long article. Two of these pictures show a type of microdrone next to a coin where one microdrone is slightly larger than a penny in one, and in the other picture the microdrone is about the size of a quarter. The author intentionally used these pictures in the article because they show the reader how even though these microdrones are quite mechanically advanced, they are very tiny. This shows the reader how impressive the technology for the drones really is and leaves the reader thinking about how much work these small robotic systems can do. In addition, the way the author starts the article with an anecdote is a craft move. The article begins by describing two engineers that worked on microdrones sitting in a bar, trying to forget about work because they hadn't been making a lot of progress. As they were talking and trying to forget about work, they noticed a fly smash into a window and then bounce right back. Unlike the drones they had been working on, the living fly knew how to recover from its shock. This inspired them and they had an "epiphany" to try to make their drones more of a manmade system that would be able to recover from incidents. The author used this anecdote to start the article intentionally because it brings the reader to a relatable scenario of just trying to relax and then finding inspiration in an unexpected place. Reading about aerodynamics and microdrones may seem like a complex scientific topic to some people, but the way the author broke it down into two engineers having a revolutionary idea just from seeing a fly hit glass makes the whole concept of the article more interesting for people who aren't engineers or mechanics to read. The anecdote brings the actual invention and the formation of ideas into the article instead of just starting by listing the functions and mechanical build of microdrones. Overall, the author uses several different kinds of craft moves such as enlarging sentences, using specific pictures, and using anecdotes to engage the reader throughout the article.

          My response to this article was that I found it incredibly interesting. Personally, I love science, though I'm not usually interested in mechanics or engineering. But I loved this article because I could understand the way the microdrones worked and how the aerodynamics discussed in the article such as wake capture actually worked since the article explained the aerodynamics of the real flies and insects that inspired the microdrones. What I mean by this is that by looking up a few words and paying a lot of attention, I was able to actually understand all these mechanical concepts in the article I would have never thought I could grasp. But though they were complex concepts, the article broke them down for me and I was able to understand the article from both a reading-for-fun-and-knowledge perspective and an actual mechanical perspective. Before reading this article, I would have never taken a second glance at a fly before just swatting it away. Now, I want to see a fly just to see if I can understand how it flies and the aerodynamics it uses just like the ones discussed in the article. Furthermore, I found this article very interesting because it showed me a lot about how products or inventions can evolve over time to become much more complex. All the prototypes and different kinds of microdrones were worked on for years and are still being worked on in order to continue to make them more like real insects and to carry out more complex functions. From the article, I was able to see how much work and detail really goes in to every single drone model and how the engineers can find inspiration for their work from something as simple as watching a fly. This idea of how the engineers actually found mechanical inspiration from every day real-life really captivated me and made me think about finding inspiration in my own life from just ordinary or simple, every-day things. This reminded me of the poetry unit in ELA because poetry can come from unexpected places. And people can find an inspiration for a poem when they're not even looking for it, just like how the engineers found inspiration when they were trying to relax outside of work. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article and it has inspired me to want to learn more about insect-inspired microdrones in the future.