A 40-gram drone that uses sonar to find and kill mosquitoes in flight

French startup Tornyol is building an autonomous drone that detects mosquitoes by wingbeat and kills them mid-air with its propellers.

French startup Tornyol, backed by Y Combinator, is developing a 40-gram autonomous drone designed to hunt and kill mosquitoes. Its LeSonar2 model uses 32 ultrasonic emitters together with 380 smartphone microphones and an Artix-7 FPGA processor to build a 3D map of its surroundings, distinguishing insects by their wingbeat frequency and harmonic sonar signature. Once a mosquito is identified, the drone kills it mid-air using its propellers.

Tornyol says a single unit can cover up to 5 acres and claims it would be 100 times more cost-effective per square kilometre than fixed traps. Pricing is set at US$1,100 as a one-time purchase or $50 per month by subscription, with early adopters able to reserve a spot for $100. Flight time is three minutes, with a 30-minute recharge.

Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal to humans, killing an estimated 700,000 to 1 million people per year, mostly through malaria. A cheap, autonomous vector-control device could ease a health burden that falls hardest on low-income regions where nets and sprays reach their limits.

The honesty here is that this is still in development. The latest demo showed the drone killing a moth, not a mosquito. A University of Lagos genetics researcher questioned its practicality in high-need areas, citing cost, dependence on electricity and the short three-minute flight time, while noise from quadcopters is another concern. The company's cost and effectiveness claims are ambitious and, for now, unverified.

Source: New Atlas