Researchers Make Lighter & Biodegradable Drones With Pineapple Leaves

With the advancement of technology, drones have different sizes and shapes. There are drones that are large enough to carry cargo and missiles so that humans don’t have to put their lives at risk. There are also tiny nano spy drones used by soldiers for their recon missions.

Then we have commercial drones in various forms and sizes that people use to capture images and videos from above. However, there is one thing that all drones share in common. It is that they aren’t made using the most environmentally-friendly materials.

Drones are susceptible to getting lost. The plastic body of the drone, as well as its battery, don’t biodegrade, ending up harming the environment.

A group of researchers from Malaysia has come up with a solution for this by making biodegradable drone frames from pineapple leaves.

In an interview with Reuters, Professor Mohamed Thariq Hameed Sultan at Putra University said that the pineapple leaves that they used were those burnt by farmers after harvest. Using the leaves will not only give these farmers some more money but also prevent severe air pollution.

Their novel method has created drones that have a higher strength-to-weight ratio than the synthetic or fiber frames of a commercial drone. They are also cheaper to make and lighter.

The best thing about making drones using pineapple leaves is that they are completely biodegradable. It only takes them a matter of weeks to degrade after buried under the ground. These drones function just like regular drones. They can fly around 1,000 meters and stay aloft for about 20 minutes.

The team is now working to add more features to the drones like imaging sensors or carrying heavier payloads. They also plan to increase the size of these drones.

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