New Drone Can ‘Disappear’ Via Motion Blur
The Phantom Twist drone spins up to 25 times per second, which is too fast for the human eye to see clearly. While it isn’t completely invisible, it morphs into a ghostly smudge that seamlessly blends into the background.
Key points
- Northwestern University engineers designed a drone that exploits motion blur to become nearly invisible.
- The entire drone rotates rapidly to blend into the background as a ghostly smudge.
- This low-visibility drone could monitor wildlife and inspect infrastructure with minimal visual disruption.
New Drone Can ‘Disappear’ Via Motion Blur
To design the drone, the Northwestern team, led by Michael Rubenstein, first used a computational model to generate roughly 20,000 drone configurations capable of stable flight. Then, they used AI and optimization algorithms to repeatedly rearrange the drones’ major components, including a motor.
When in flight, "Phantom Twist" looks like a ghostly smudge, blending in with its background. (Image: Northwestern University)