Micro Air Vehicles Being Developed for Military Support May Soon be Used by Law Enforcement at Home

Micro air vehicles (MAV's) are tiny sensing robots currently being developed and deployed mainly to aid military personal in their day to day operations by sending a robot somewhere that may be too dangerous to send a soldier.
Greg Gremillion from the University of Maryland's Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory, discusses the current direction of MAV research.

Greg Gremillion is a fourth year graduate research assistant pursuing a PhD in aerospace engineering. He works at the University's Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory (AVL) under Dr. Humbert. Gremillion's research is focused on the dynamics and control of these MAV with the ultimate goal of creating small vehicles able to carry out missions on their own. 

 An Aircraft with no Pilot
MAV, such as the ones  Gremillion shows below, have the potential to be simply programmed by a user and set lose to carry out their missions. With no pilot, these vehicles would explore space, send back information, videos, maps and other data that could then be used for various purposes. Gremillion and the AVL work with several types of MAV test beds.

Civilian MAVs

MAVs are currently very limited in their deployment and are generally reserved for military applications at the time. However, many now-widespread technologies, such as the internet and GPS, began as exclusive military products. It is very likely that MAVs will soon be available for civilian use which can cause concerns for privacy and abuse. Gremillion mentioned that these products may be appealing for law enforcement officials to gather information and surveillance.

 

The development of micro air vehicles is still very much in its infancy. They are reshaping our understanding of fluid dynamics and forcing us to look at nature's own tiny fliers for inspiration. It will be exciting to see not just the future uses of MAVs but what other fields of study this bio-inspired trend of sensing and controls will kickstart.