ALL IN THE PACK

WHEN IT COMES TO EFFICIENCY AND MANOEUVRABILITY, EVEN THE SMALLEST DRONES CAN’T BEAT A DRAGONFLY. Observing this, Draper, a not-for-profit research and development company, developed the DragonflEye programme to guide the insect using miniaturised navigation, synthetic biology and neurotechnology.

The result is a genetically modified dragonfly — or, some would call it, a hybrid drone — with a backpack guidance system capable of energy harvesting, navigation and optical stimulation. Optogenetic tools from the backpack send guidance commands to special ‘steering’ neurons in the part of the dragonfly’s nervous system that controls flight. To make the ‘steering’ neurons sensitive to light, the DragonflEye team — comprising researchers from both Draper and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute — is inserting genes similar to those found in the eye. The ‘steering’ neurons will then be activated with pulses of light piped into the nerve cord from the dragonfly’s backpack.

The researchers call the resulting dragonfly “a new kind of micro-aerial vehicle”. The tools they are using could someday advance human medical treatment through miniaturised diagnostics, providing doctors the ability to safely access smaller neural targets. The technology can also be used to guide honeybees in pollination. It also means there’s a new drone in town, one that’s smaller and stealthier than its man-made counterparts.