exploits



The french company SilMach (Besançon), a spin-off of CNRS in France, works since 2 years on a silicium dragonfly, totally nanomechanics. It's called a nanodrone.

Weight : 120 mg - Breadth : 6 cm.
4 wings, 180000 muscles (1 x 150 microns/muscle)
Duration of the project : 3 years.
Budget : 150 000 €.

The purpose is to create a system composed by other smaller systems, the big one having the same mechanics features than the the biological original.
An idea of outlet is military : the dragonfly could spy on the opposing side, calmly. Indeed, even located (even that, it's not obvious), it's quite difficult to kill (sniper, gas .. a flycatcher ?)

The (nano)muscles, powered by 150 V, produce a beat of an amplitude of 40°, like the real dragonfly!
One of the main problem is the power supply : on the 120 mg, 100 would be for batteries. When flying, the dragonfly uses about 50000 joules/g, but the current batteries can provide 360 joules/g. Such a source of energy is not yet ready, it's one of the challenges of this project.

sources : Ministère français de la défense, june 2005
for those which do not know : nanomecanics in LLN, drone, the prefix nano and James Prescott Joule

Labels: exploits