An Engineer Created A Tiny Mosquito-Hunting Drone
Credit: tornyol.com
Alex Toussaint, a former engineer at European missile developer and manufacturer MBDA, has developed an autonomous drone weighing 40 grams that detects and destroys mosquitoes using AMD ultrasonic sonar.
Tornyol Systems’ core idea first gained attention at the Hackaday Supercon 2024 conference, where Toussaint presented a paper titled “How to Detect (and Kill) Mosquitoes with Off-the-Shelf Electronics.” Since then, the technology has undergone significant improvements and become much more compact.
“The system currently relies on a LeSonar2 phased-array sonar station, which uses 380 microphones similar to those found in smartphones and an Artix-7 FPGA to create a 3D map of the surrounding space. This system transmits enough information to the drone to detect movements with an accuracy of 0.1 millimeters and identify mosquitoes by their unique wingbeat sound,” the article states.
It is noted that commands are sent to the microdrone by a personal computer, which also uses car parking sensors and some sophisticated digital signal processing algorithms to find and destroy mosquitoes at a distance of up to 8 meters.
When launched into mass production, a prototype version will cost several hundred dollars, while a smaller version will be cheaper. A pre-order requires a $100 deposit, but this is refundable. The drone can be sold for a one-time payment or offered through a subscription. A one-year warranty is included with purchase, and drones with a subscription are replaced if they break.
