The Nano Hummingbird is a miniature drone designed and built by AeroVironment for the DARPA Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program. Inspired by the biology of a hummingbird, it is capable of flying in any direction, as well as hovering and rotating on its axis. The Nano Hummingbird is tiny and lightweight, with a wingspan of 16 centimeters (6.5 inches) and weighs just 19 grams (0.67 ounces). Despite its small size, it is equipped with a camera, allowing it to conduct surveillance. The development of the Nano Hummingbird aims to produce extremely small drones capable of entering confined spaces undetected. However, the sophisticated technology integrated into the tiny drone does not come cheap.
Nano Hummingbird Specifications
Here are some key specifications of the Nano Hummingbird:
- Wingspan: 16 cm (6.5 inches)
- Weight: 19 g (0.67 oz)
- Top speed: 11 mph
- Flight time: 8 minutes
- Hover precision: Within millimeters even in gusts of wind
- Surveillance camera: Capable of still photos and video
- Maneuverability: Can fly sideways, backwards, rotate, and hover in place
- Replicates true hummingbird maneuvers
With its tiny size but advanced capabilities, the Nano Hummingbird pushes the boundaries of what is possible with micro drone technology. The precision and agility allows it to access confined spaces other small drones simply cannot. It also mimics the movements and behaviors of a real hummingbird closely. However, this cutting-edge performance does not come without cost.
Development Costs
The Nano Hummingbird was developed under a DARPA program with substantial funding from the US military. Reports indicate DARPA provided AeroVironment with up to $4 million in funding to develop the drone under the Nano Air Vehicle program from 2006 to 2008. It was first unveiled in February 2011. The research and development costs were very high for such a tiny drone with so many capabilities packed into a tiny package. Miniaturizing the mechanical and electronic components while maximizing flight performance was a major engineering challenge. The costs were also driven up by the need for custom fabricated parts and the intricacies involved in mimicking hummingbird movements.
Complex Manufacturing
Due to the Nano Hummingbird’s extremely small size and low weight requirements, the drone could not be made using conventional manufacturing techniques. Instead, specialized nano and micro-fabrication technologies typically used in semiconductors had to be employed. The aircraft’s wings had to be precisely fabricated using a complex lamination process, pieced together from multiple materials at the molecular level. Integrating the minute electronic components and circuitry also required customized micromanufacturing processes. These non-standard production techniques made the manufacturing costs per unit very high.
Sophisticated Components
The Nano Hummingbird utilizes state-of-the-art components miniaturized to fit into its tiny airframe. This includes:
- A tiny camera similar in size to a penny capable of capturing still photos and video
- A lithium-ion polymer battery providing the energy for eight minutes of flight per charge
- Brushless motors compact enough to fit inside its wings spinning at massive speeds for propulsion and maneuverability
- Accelerometers and gyroscopes for stability
- A motherboard with chipsets for processing and memory
The need for specialized nano-scale components and electronics greatly added to the system costs compared to larger drones using off-the-shelf parts. But they were necessary to make the Nano Hummingbird a reality.
Unit Cost
The Nano Hummingbird was designed as a proof of concept rather than for mass production. Only a couple fully functional prototypes were built by AeroVironment during its development under DARPA. As a result, there is no official per unit cost available. However, experts estimate the manufacturing cost for each Nano Hummingbird drone likely ranges from $100,000 to $150,000. This high cost is a result of the expensive research and development required, along with the custom microfabrication technologies needed for such a tiny drone. While the Nano Hummingbird remains a technological marvel, its cutting-edge nature makes the cost per unit prohibitively high for most applications.
Mass Production Costs
If the Nano Hummingbird was mass produced, costs would likely drop substantially. With investment in specialized manufacturing infrastructure and streamlined assembly, experts project the cost per unit could potentially decrease to around $50,000 to $100,000 with large scale manufacturing. This is still reasonable given the technological sophistication involved. But further cost reductions would depend on scaling up production volumes and improving the micro-manufacturing techniques. This could eventually make the systems affordable enough for certain commercial and industrial applications.
Future Cost Reductions
As micro drone technology continues advancing, costs are expected to gradually come down. Improvements in energy efficiency could also reduce costs by allowing longer flight times per charge. However, the specialized materials and fabrication techniques required seem unlikely to get much cheaper. There may also be physical limits to how small and light the components can get. But with its current capabilities in such a miniscule package, the Nano Hummingbird remains an impressive accomplishment despite its high price tag.
Comparison to Other Drones
The Nano Hummingbird’s estimated $100,000+ manufacturing cost makes it orders of magnitude more expensive than larger commercial drones. For comparison:
- DJI Mavic Pro: $999
- Yuneec Typhoon H: $899
- Parrot Bebop 2: $550
These popular hobbyist and consumer drones cost a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars. The significantly higher cost of the Nano Hummingbird is a result of its tiny size, design challenges, and specialized components. Its incredibly small size and capability to mimic hummingbird movements is unmatched by commercial drones. But those capabilities come at a premium price.
Value Provided
Despite the high manufacturing cost, the Nano Hummingbird provides immense value for certain applications:
- Surveillance in confined spaces not accessible by larger drones
- Military and intelligence gathering operations
- Inspecting hazardous areas
- Police operations in complex environments
- Highly maneuverable personal drone
For many commercial uses, cheaper larger drones may be perfectly adequate. But the Nano Hummingbird’s size, maneuverability and sophistication fills an important niche that justifies the costs for certain organizations. Militaries, law enforcement, private security firms and others may find the capabilities worth the high price.
Surveillance Value
The Nano Hummingbird’s camera, despite being tiny, allows inspection of cramped or confined spaces not accessible by conventional drones. This can provide tremendous value for security and police applications. The drone’s ability to mimic hummingbird movements also allows it to access locations and behave naturally without attracting attention. Even at $100,000+, the surveillance capabilities from such a small package make it a powerful tool.
Other Micro Drones
The Nano Hummingbird is not the only micro drone under development. Other notable projects include:
- Black Hornet Nano – 32 gram helicopter drone by ProxDynamics
- DelFly Micro – 3 gram flapping wing drone built by TU Delft
- RoboBee – Insect-sized robot drone from Harvard University
These other micro drones come with their own capabilities and costs. However, most do not yet match the sophistication and maneuverability of the Nano Hummingbird. The Black Hornet nano-helicopter provides live video streaming but lacks the Hummingbird’s agility and endurance. DelFly and RoboBee have extreme maneuverability and sizes smaller than a penny, but lack onboard cameras and still have very limited flight times. The field of micro drones continues advancing, but the Nano Hummingbird remains one of the most capable to date, albeit at a high price.
Conclusion
The Nano Hummingbird is an engineering marvel, with flight capabilities and surveillance in a tiny package unmatched by commercial drones. But the cutting-edge technology and custom fabrication required to shrink everything down to such a tiny scale makes the manufacturing cost per unit extremely high, likely somewhere between $100,000 to $150,000 based on estimates. This places it out of reach for most recreational users. However, for specialized applications the surveillance and access capabilities its tiny size provides makes it a powerful tool worth the price tag for certain organizations. And as micro manufacturing techniques continue to advance, costs are likely to gradually come down and make micro drones like the Nano Hummingbird more accessible to a broader range of commercial and private users. But for now it remains an expensive technology demonstrator proving the immense possibilities of micro drone systems.