Just look at this thing! While it may seem like something Bruce Wayne would deploy in one of the Batman movies, it’s actually a concept under development between the US Military and scientists at the University of Michigan. Not only is it a small bionic bat with stereo cameras, miniaturized radar, and ultra-sensitive self-guidance — but it also is a renewable critter mean to take advantage of energy from solar, wind, and vibrations.
Piezoelectric technology, anyone?
Here’s what Gizmodo had to say on the development of this cool technology:
For energy recovery, UMich will work to develop “quantum dot solar cells,” making current solar cells twice as nice. The bat’s autonomous navi system will be 1,000 times smaller than current systems, and that much more energy efficient too. The comms system will be shrunk to one-tenth the current size, too. You can see how all of this shrinkage will have positive impact outside the bionic-bat community as well.
The bat-bot’s intended use is to run surveillance ops and relay data in realtime (as well as radiation and poison gas readings) back to HQ. UMich will receive $10 million over 5 years to develop the technology. You can grab more details here.
2 Comments
I love it when people employ future advances in technology to “develop” new products. Their time would be best spent looking for ways to shrink sizes and improve efficiencies, so best of luck to them on that end. My engineering intuition, however, tells me that running this sucker on solar power may be a pipe dream unless PV advances ridiculously.
I just Stumbled this article so more people can find it. Maybe someone will find it and invent a version that I can afford.