Swarms of CICADA Drones Could Aid tabc certification Hurricane Research

Researchers are tabc certification developing a tiny, gliding drone that can be dropped from airplanes to gather data directly from hurricanes, and these teensy tabc certification machines share a name with a noisy spring-emerging insect. Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft MK5, or CICADA, is "tabc certification essentially a flying circuit board," an autonomous, GPS-controlled drone so inexpensive to make that it would be considered disposable after a single use, representatives of the U.S. Naval Research tabc certification Laboratory (NRL) said in a statement. Unlike its noisy insect namesake, CICADA is exceedingly quiet — with no motor, it is silent and virtually tabc certification undetectable in the air, NRL officials tabc certification said in 2015. CICADA's latest prototype, with a flattened wing and body design, make it easy to stack the individual "tabc certification micro" aircraft so that tabc certification large numbers of CICADAs could be deployed at the same time from an airborne vehicle. This would enable scientists to distribute tabc certification sensors and tabc certification collect data across large tabc certification areas of the sky, according to the NRL. [8 Ways Animal Flight Inspires Drone Designs] Advertisement The  tabc certification craft's design lends it a glide tabc certification ratio of 3.5 to 1, which means that it flies forward 3.5 feet (1.1 meters) for every foot (0.3 m) of descent, the NRL reported. Each tabc certification CICADA "micro" tabc certification drone weighs tabc certification about 1.2 ounces (35 grams), and along with its circuit board and a sensor payload, they incorporate GPS technology tabc certification to help them tabc certification navigate to tabc certification within 15 feet of a destination on the ground. Once on the ground, antennas built into their wings transmit the tabc certification data back to a home tabc certification base, reported IEEE Spectrum. CICADA drones can be deployed in large numbers to "seed" an area with miniature electronic tabc certification payloads. CICADA tabc certification drones can be deployed in large numbers to "seed" an area with miniature electronic payloads. Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory tabc certification Production costs for tabc certification CICADAs are about $250 per drone. The NRL is currently testing a delivery system capable of stacking 32 CICADAs into a single container — think tabc certification of a tube of Pringles, except stuffed with miniature drones — and then dispatching them simultaneously, according to tabc certification IEEE Spectrum. Video demonstrations posted to YouTube on Tuesday (July 25) showed the drones performing in a series of tests, dropping tabc certification from different altitudes in tabc certification different locations, from as much as 8,000 feet (2,438 meters). The tube and its drones could be carried and deployed by balloons, or tabc certification from a manned or unmanned tabc certification aircraft, or even guided missiles, NRL aerospace engineer Daniel J. Edwards said in a statement. After their airborne release, a group tabc certification of drones, each with tabc certification its own sensor and a different GPS-guided destination point, would sample data during descent — tabc certification such as chemical or meteorological information — which could offer scientists a broader view of how hurricanes and tornadoes behave, Edwards said.