Hoverfly Brains Mapped To Detect the Sound of Distant Drones

A drone is seen in the sky as Chinese drone maker DJI holds a
demonstration to display an app that tracks a drone's registration and
owner in Montreal, Canada, November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Christinne
Muschi
A drone is seen in the sky as Chinese drone maker DJI holds a demonstration to display an app that tracks a drone's registration and owner in Montreal, Canada, November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi
TT
20

Hoverfly Brains Mapped To Detect the Sound of Distant Drones

A drone is seen in the sky as Chinese drone maker DJI holds a
demonstration to display an app that tracks a drone's registration and
owner in Montreal, Canada, November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Christinne
Muschi
A drone is seen in the sky as Chinese drone maker DJI holds a demonstration to display an app that tracks a drone's registration and owner in Montreal, Canada, November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

For the first time, Australian researchers have reverse engineered the visual systems of hoverflies to develop drones capable of detecting other drones' acoustic signatures from almost four kilometers away. The research was published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Autonomous systems experts from the University of South Australia (UniSA), Flinders University and defense company Midspar Systems say that trials using bio-inspired signal processing techniques show up to a 50 percent better detection rate than existing methods.

Hoverflies have a superior vision that can detect visual signs in complex landscapes. The researchers worked under the assumption that the same processes which allow small visual targets to be seen amongst visual clutter could be redeployed to extract low volume acoustic signatures from drones buried in noise.

By converting acoustic signals into two-dimensional 'images' (called spectrograms), researchers used the neural pathway of the hoverfly brain to suppress unrelated signals and noise, increasing the detection range for the sounds they wanted to detect.

Using their image-processing skills and sensing expertise, the researchers made this bio-inspired acoustic data breakthrough, which could help combat the growing global threat posed by IED-carrying drones, including in Ukraine.

“Bio-vision processing has been shown to greatly pick up clear and crisp acoustic signatures of drones, including very small and quiet ones, using an algorithm based on the hoverfly's visual system,” said UniSA Professor of Autonomous Systems and lead author Anthony Finn in a report.

“Unauthorized drones pose distinctive threats to airports, individuals and military bases. It is therefore becoming ever-more critical for us to be able to detect specific locations of drones at long distances, using techniques that can pick up even the weakest signals. Our trials using the hoverfly-based algorithms show we can now do this," noted Finn, who have high hopes for their new technique.



Syria Seeks EU Help to Battle Massive Wildfires

FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
TT
20

Syria Seeks EU Help to Battle Massive Wildfires

FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
FILE : A fire burns at a forest in Latakia province, Syria in this handout released by SANA on October 9, 2020. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

Syria’s minister of emergencies and disaster management on Tuesday requested support from the European Union to battle wildfires that have swept through a vast stretch of forested land.

The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought.

Neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiye have already dispatched firefighting teams to assist in the response.

“We asked the European Union for help in extinguishing the fires,” minister Raed al-Saleh said on X, adding Cyprus was expected to send aid on Tuesday, AFP reported.

“Fear of the fires spreading due to strong winds last night prompted us to evacuate 25 families to ensure their safety without any human casualties,” he added.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) office in Syria, the fires impacted “some 5,000 persons, including displacements, across 60 communities.”

An estimated 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of forest and farmland -- more than three percent of Syria’s forest cover -- have burned, OCHA told AFP.

At least seven towns in Latakia province have been evacuated as a precaution.

Efforts to extinguish the fires have been hindered by “rugged terrain, the absence of firebreaks, strong winds, and the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance”, Saleh said.

With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.

In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years.”