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Scientists have developed a tiny, lightweight, shape-shifting platform that can hold a variety of environmental sensors and be dropped from drones to study far-flung locations.
Though they haven’t been used in any scientific studies yet, microfliers could be useful for the large-scale deployment of environmental sensors measuring and transmitting data on pressure, temperature, humidity, or lighting conditions, among others. “A small change in shape actually has a pretty dramatic impact on how they move through the air,” Vikram Iyer, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington who led the team that developed the platform, told Mongabay in a video interview. “In one case, they have this tumbling descent, kind of like a leaf flying in the wind, and then in another case, when they have just a little bit of an inward fold, they pull basically straight down like a parachute.
Though the platform hasn’t been deployed for any scientific studies yet, Iyer said it could be effective for large-scale dispersal of environmental sensors, especially in far-flung places that are hard to reach. Each microflier can hold sensors to measure and transmit data on pressure, temperature, humidity, or lighting conditions, among others.
It was this hurdle that Iyer’s team overcame with their origami-inspired design. The decision to incorporate the Japanese technique was, in fact, fortuitous. To ensure that the microfliers spread out over a wide area, the researchers trigger a few of them to change their shapes right under the drone. For a few others, they wait until they drop to a lower altitude so that they spread out further. Iyer said the sensors on the platform can work even when they’re in the air and in the process of falling down. “If you want to make measurements in a column of air at a high-spatial granularity, this can do that as well,” he said.
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