Currently there is much research and development and prototype testing of unmanned aerial vehicles. They're getting smaller in size and more robust and features. Today our unmanned aerial vehicles are loaded with a myriad of sensors including; radar, lidar, sonar, infrared, etc. Indeed, with all this research and monies been channeled in the direction of unmanned aerial vehicles we have noticed that the sensors and equipment in order to provide these functions of autonomous flight are getting smaller. In fact, there are now leading researchers who are building unmanned aerial vehicles the size of a hummingbird, which have three axis autopilots and all the sensors mentioned above. Does this mean we can build artificially intelligent birds capable of autonomous flight? Capable of learning to maneuver them selves based on wind flow and speed or direction of travel or manipulating their position in the relative wind? Indeed so. But what will we use these artificially intelligent birds for? Could we use them to help steer potentially infected birds with bird flu or West Nile virus away from our cities? Obviously, there are many military applications for surveillance as well as applications in policing. The future of artificially intelligent birds is nearly upon us. It is a bird or plane? It's super bird. Consider this in 2006. |
