A TERRIFYING drone dubbed “Phantom Twist” that can become almost invisible could be a game-changer on the battlefield.
Boffins have developed a cutting-edge UAV that can spin so quickly that it is effectively impossible to detect with the human eye.
Scientists developed a drone so quick that it can disappear in front of the naked eye Credit: Northwestern University
The rapid drone could mark a huge change for battlefield strategy Credit: Northwestern University
The near-invisible device spins up to 25 times per second – making it too rapid to view without special gear.
It is not completely unseeable, but it is about 10 times less visible than a standard quadcopter, scientists say.
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Its makers called its appearance a “ghostly smudge” – saying it can blend “seamlessly into the background”.
Project lead Michael Rubenstein at Northwestern University said: “Most efforts to hide drones focus on making them look like their surroundings.
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“Instead, we asked whether we could design the drone itself around the way humans perceive motion.
“This idea of low visibility through persistent motion is something few people have explored.”
To conceive the ingenious design, his team first used computers to generate about 20,000 different configurations.
Then they used AI to test different component arrangements and finally come up with a shortlist of designs.
The device is too quick to be detected Credit: Northwestern University
Typical drones are much larger and heavier Credit: Alamy
Rubenstein added: “The design process was fully automated.
“Then, when we were confident that a drone met all our criteria, we built it.”
Typical drones usually feature four separate rotors, but Phantom Twist has just one motor and one propeller.
Rubenstein added: “For a typical quadrotor drone, the propellers are spinning, but the robot is stationary.
“So, you still see its body. For our drone, the whole thing is rotating, so there are no stationary parts.”
Emma Alexander, who also worked on the drone, said: “The human eye takes time to accumulate signals, roughly analogous to the exposure time of a camera.
“When an object spins quickly, we perceive it as blurring out and losing distinct features.
“Because this new drone is almost entirely transparent, its few opaque components are visually averaged with the background for an overall appearance of a slight haze.”
The UAV does have its limits despite being nearly invisible.
Firstly, researchers could still see its wires and support rods.
Additionally, the team said it still emits a loud noise.
But Rubenstein’s team hope their work could eventually lead to devices that can be used either on the battlefield or for disasters without being seen.
Fellow scientist Peter Lee from the University of Portsmouth, who was not involved in the project, told the New Scientist it would have implications for modern warfare.
But he did say it had serious limitations, including that it is very sparse and would become more visible once additional parts such as sensors are added.
He also claimed that adding any more weight could make the drone’s flight “impossible”.
“This style of drone is not manoeuvrable in the way that quadcopters are highly manoeuvrable,” he said.
“So because of the rotation, it won’t be able to bank at steep angles.
“It would slow the speed of the rotation, and therefore it would become more visible and it’s probably getting unstable.”
