Even in the pitch darkness, mosquitoes still remain as a worthy adversary, as they can still home towards their target unhindered. What’s more, when they do land on their target, they do so without alarming the target. The only time you know that a mosquito has landed on you is when it has already bitten you, and by that time, it’s already gone. Silent but deadly, indeed. But how do they navigate in the dark, and how do they land quietly?
They manage this thanks to mechanosensing, which is a responsivity to mechanical stimuli that allows them to sense obstacles without using their eyes. Unlike bats, which navigate by means of a biological sonar system, mosquitoes use a combination of their wings, antennae, and airflow.
According to the team, mosquitoes fly by beating their elongated wings very rapidly, producing fast jets of air that provide lift. If these jets encounter an obstacle, these airflow patterns change shape, which can be detected by an array of receptors at the base of the mosquito's antennae called the Johnston’s organ. This allows the insect to build a picture of its surroundings using "aerodynamic imaging," allowing it to map where the ground and other obstacles are located.
Fascinated by the considerable feats of the mosquito, an international team of scientists imitated this tiny insect’s sensory mechanism and used this concept on drones. The result?
The team found that the quadcopter could detect surfaces at a sufficient distance to avoid the ground or walls with little or no data processing, In addition, the new system is said to be lightweight, power-efficient, and scalable.
This new obstacle avoidance system is not only limited to drones, as it can also be applied to larger aerial vehicles, like helicopters.
More about this over at New Atlas.
(Image Credit: Chiba University/Structure and Motion Laboratory/ RVC)