Dead Birds Re-engineered as Drones To Discreetly Spy on People, Wildlife

Engineers have been constructing and fine-tuning robots that imitate birds to make better designs for drones. But a group of researchers led by Mostafa Hassanalian and his colleagues at New Mexico Tech presents their new robot that uses taxidermy birds, putting an unusual theory into practice.

In their paper "Taxidermy Birds as Platform for Flapping Wing Drones: A Bioinspired Mechanism for Wildlife Monitoring," which was presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' SciTech Forum, the team discussed creating new systems based on taxidermy bird parts and artificial wing configurations to mimic avian inspirations.

Bird Corpses Could Be Used as Drones for Spying

New Scientist reported on Tuesday, February 14, that the team technically created two dead bird robots. One was attached with artificial body components fused with an actual pheasant's head and feathers, while the second bird has a mechanical body fused with real pigeon wings.

Researchers also employed 3D flapping and aerodynamic simulators to assess the re-engineered aerodynamic flapping properties of the models. Researchers wrote in their study that this enabled the development of flapping mechanisms and testing of the flapping wing drone's aerodynamics.

As Futurism reports, the team's experiment with bird robots brings the "Birds Are Not Real" conspiracy theory to life. These actual functioning prototypes for drones that look like real pigeons are designed to be seamless and natural to be used in wildlife and military spy on people without getting noticed.

Hassanalian, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and the lead author of the study, told New Scientist that they think it is possible to use dead birds and re-engineer them as a drone instead of using artificial materials to make drones.

So far, the bird drones can glide without flapping their wings and hover like hummingbirds due to the use of taxidermied bird parts, which include their head, feathers, and wings, from pigeons, pheasants, hummingbirds, and crows. The team was able to accurately emulate the motions of a fluttering bird. It is easier to build a drone than design a traditional, mechanical wing that flaps like an ornithopter.

Downside of Taxidermy Birds as Drones

Unsurprisingly, the taxidermy bird drones lag considerably behind their living counterparts in terms of speed and grace. However, Popular Science reported that the current drone can successfully glide, hover, and soar higher on hot thermal current. However, these drones should still not be expected to do anything elegantly yet as seen on the video Hassanalian provided to PopSci.

The unpredictability of robot birds flying about may not be a problem for the new designs' prospective applications. Although the team wrote in their paper that it could be used for military use, Hassanalian emphasizes in an email that this is far from its primary goal of "developing a nature-friendly drone concept for wildlife monitoring."

He noted that, since traditional drones are often disruptive to ecosystems due to issues such as noise and unfamiliarity, developing quieter natural-looking drones could help in monitoring wildlife and in conducting research.

More so, he said that there are potential biological discoveries to be found in mimicking movements of birds, like knowing how they conserve energy while flying in V-formations or the role their feather colors and patterns play in heat absorption and airflow.

They also acknowledge that there is a lot more to do, especially in ethics and research guidelines for using dead birds in future scientific work. They said that a taxidermy artist helped them handle the birds they used in the experiment.