Robotic hummingbird spies have arrived

Meet the world’s first fully operational hummingbird-inspired unmanned aircraft. The “Nano Hummingbird” was developed by AeroVironment for DARPA, the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The surprisingly beautiful and biologically respectful robotic hummingbird can fly indoors, outdoors and could be the future of reconnaissance and surveillance missions in urban environments.

The Nano Hummingbird hovers, even in wind gusts up to 5 miles per hour, and for up to 8 minutes with no external power source. It can move from hovering to as fast as 11 miles per hour in forward flight.

A pilot operates the Nano Hummingbird with a remote control or while looking at its live video imaging stream. I imagine a future hummingbird bot cruising through middle eastern cities picking conversations and images like human spies never could. See the Nano Hummingbird in action below.

Story by Courtney Boyd Myers

Courtney Boyd Myers is the founder of audience.io, a transatlantic company designed to help New York and London based technology startups gr (show all) Courtney Boyd Myers is the founder of audience.io, a transatlantic company designed to help New York and London based technology startups grow internationally. Previously, she was the Features Editor and East Coast Editor of TNW covering New York City startups and digital innovation. She loves magnets + reading on a Kindle. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter @CBM and Google +.