Passive Electronic 3D Microfliers with Designs Inspired by Wind-Dispersed Seeds

Distributed collections of miniaturized, wireless electronic devices will likely form the basis of future systems for environmental monitoring, population surveillance, disease management and other applications that demand coverage over expansive spatial scales. This talk describes how wind-dispersed seeds can serve as bio-inspiration in an unusual, airborne scheme for deploying large numbers of active components for such applications. Specifically, we introduce foundational ideas in materials science, aerodynamic engineering and manufacturing that enable a unique class of technology for this purpose – small-scale 3D structures with designs optimized for passive flight and with the capacity to support wireless electronics and digital sensors as payloads. Battery-free electronic devices for atmospheric measurements and colorimetric sensors of ground water chemistry provide simple examples of a wide spectrum of potential applications of these ideas.