Abstract
In recent history, advancements in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have enabled new possibilities in environmental monitoring, reconnaissance, and search-and-rescue operations, yet conventional drones remain constrained by fundamental limitations in flight efficiency, maneuverability, and endurance. Fixed-wing aircraft are efficient but require continuous forward motion and open space to operate, while multirotor systems can hover and maneuver precisely but rely on powerful actuation that limits flight time. These tradeoffs restrict deployment in environments such as forests, collapsed structures, or urban areas where adaptability and precision are critical. To address these restrictions, ICARUS-1 draws on the mechanics of dragonflies to develop a four-wing flapping UAS capable of hovering, directional control, and precise maneuvering within strict mass and power budgets.
Dragonflies have four independently actuated wings allow for dynamic modulation of lift and thrust through adjustable phase relationships, enabling hovering, rapid directional changes, and backward flight within a single lightweight structure, a unique capability not utilized in any modern technologies. Drawing on this biological model, the ICARUS-1 team designed and prototyped a dragonfly-inspired UAS incorporating four independently driven wing assemblies controlled through a custom circuit board and microcontroller. Wings were developed through extensive iteration, ultimately achieving a dramatic mass reduction from the initial design through the adoption of carbon fiber rod spars within a vacuum-sealed film. A dedicated thrust test bench was used to validate lift generation and wing dynamics across the system.
The ICARUS-1 development process was characterized by mechanical roadblocks that need to be surpassed through iterative design and critical thinking. Early motor configurations were abandoned after failures under the oscillating load; servo-based control systems were simplified after noticing actuation instabilities at required frequencies; and the airframe was restructured multiple times to limit the mass. These revisions reflect the degree to which material constraints, aerodynamic behavior, and system-level interactions shaped the final design as much as any of the mission objectives did.
This negotiation, however, did not occur in a vacuum. The development of micro-UAVs is not simply a technical problem of achieving efficient flight on a small scale but is fundamentally a sociotechnical challenge shaped by interactions among institutions, engineers, biological models, materials, and societal concerns. While these systems offer potential benefits for civilian applications, their maneuverability and miniaturization also make them highly suitable for covert surveillance and military operations. Because these competing uses are characteristic of the designs themselves, their development raises significant ethical concerns related to privacy, militarization, and environmental disruption; concerns that cannot be resolved by engineering decisions alone.
The accompanying STS report addresses this directly by applying Actor-Network Theory to DARPA's Micro Air Vehicle and Nano Air Vehicle programs, examining how a network of human and non-human actors has and continues to shape the trajectory of bio-inspired flight. ANT provides a framework for understanding how government agencies, engineers, biological systems, aerodynamic forces, and material constraints interact to produce specific outcomes. Through this lens, DARPA functions as the obligatory passage point through which all actors must align to participate in the network; enrolling universities, private contractors, biological organisms, and design constraints in service of a surveillance-oriented program definition. The Nano Hummingbird and RoboBee are examined as case studies in network stabilization, demonstrating that technological success is not a product of engineering performance alone but also of the alignment of actors within a network. The same material limitations and aerodynamic resistances that shaped the design process of ICARUS-1 appear as active participants in a broader social and institutional process.
ANT reveals that the ethical consequences of micro-UAV development are not incidental outcomes but are instead embedded within the networks that produce these systems. The values of a system are determined during its design process, meaning that the covert surveillance capacity of the Nano Hummingbird is not a misuse of the technology but a direct inscription of the priorities of the actors that had funded it. These outcomes are contingent rather than inevitable, however, and by enrolling new actors such as regulatory agencies, civil liberties organizations, environmental monitoring bodies, and affected communities as obligatory passage points, the direction of bio-inspired UAV research could be reconfigured toward more socially beneficial ends.
Notes
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
Technical Advisor: Haibo Dong
STS Advisor: Travis Elliott
Technical Team Members: Theo LengKong, Jafar Mansoor, Justin Matara, Matthew Sendi, Owen McKenney, Mark Piatko, Kathryn Geoffroy, James Scullin, Carter Nickola, Nicholas Owen, Jeremiah Nubbe, Lily Byers, Andrew Mercer, Luis Ramos-Garcia
