Small and agile

Researchers build drone modeled on cockroach

The drone has a streamlined body to detect contact with branches everywhere.(Bild: Emanuele Aucone)

Inspired by cockroaches, researchers in Switzerland have developed a new drone that can push away obstacles and glide through them. In future, it will be used to record biodiversity in remote areas. 

Environmental monitoring in areas with dense vegetation is a major challenge for science, according to a statement from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). Although it is possible to take samples from individual branches, it has not yet been possible to penetrate further into the treetops. According to the researchers, the biggest difficulty is that the branches are flexible and cause the drone to vibrate.

The WSL researchers led by first author Emanuele Aucone, together with researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the University of Pisa in Italy, sought a solution to this problem. They found the solution in the body structure of cockroaches: it is streamlined and consists of low-friction material.

They applied this to the drone, which they presented in the journal "Nature Communications". The researchers also equipped the drone with intelligence distributed throughout its body, as the WSL explained. The drone was given haptic feedback to enable it to react to contact with its surroundings.

Initial tests were promising
In initial tests, the cockroach drone was successful: it was able to push away branches both with and without leaves and get past them. With a non-streamlined body or a material with high friction, however, the drone got stuck in the experiment.

In the next step, the researchers want to improve their drone even further. For example, it should be able to react to several obstacles at the same time.