The drone developed by graduate student Nate Simon. Photo courtesy of Nate Simon.
Graduate student Nate Simon shared his work with researchers at the American Physical Society annual meeting which took place in Washington, DC in November. His presentation focused on new robotic technologies for studying atmospheric pollution.
Simon's presentation at the APS fluid dynamics meeting was reported on by Sophia Chen in the February 2024 edition of APS News:
It can be a tough act, delivering a talk at the end of the day at a conference. But Nate Simon brought a tiny drone to entertain the audience. Resembling a flying crab and about the weight of a plum, the robot rose into the air and meandered across the room before Simon, a fourth-year robotics graduate student at Princeton University, let it plummet to the ground. The audience laughed.
In recent years, researchers like Simon have begun developing drones to study matter in the atmosphere. “People are interested in understanding the flow,” says Simon.“That could be to track pollutants, how wildfire smoke disperses, or understanding how mosquitoes fly and find humans.”
At Princeton, Simon works with the Intelligent Robot Motion Lab and the Fundamental and Applied Studies in Turbulence Group and is co-advised by professors Ani Majumdar and Marcus Hultmark.