A team of researchers at Stanford University have created a drone that solves the problem of such technology getting damaged or lost while in use.
The shell of the aircraft is made of cellulose and mycelium, the vegetative part of a mushroom, and the team coated the body with the same protein used by wasps to make their nests resistant to water, according to Discovery News. The mushroom-based parts were provided by materials science company Ecovative.
With these components, the drone is capable of assembling itself anywhere to go to work and then melt into a puddle of sugar whenever it gets lost.
"Mushroom materials are inherently lightweight, biodegradable and the strength-to-weight ratio of the material was preferable for this application," said Melissa Jacobsen from Ecovative.
The drone was one of many participants in this year's International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM), which focuses on inventions designed for synthetic biology.
The self-growing drone's debut comes at a time when drones are find more and more applications, including mapping environments, tracking wildlife and surveying dangerous areas, Discovery News reported. They're even being tested to delivery items.
Stanford worked with researchers from NASA and other universities on the prototype of the drone, FastCoExist reported.
Ian Hull, team member from Stanford, said the drone can dissolve without affecting the area it's in, and that the machine can be sent into environments where there is a possibility that it won't return.
"If we want to fly it over wildfires to see where it's spreading, or if there's a nuclear meltdown and we want to fly in to see what's going on with the radioactivity, we can send in the drone and it can send back data without returning."
The drone comes with bio-engineered sensors that reduce weight and make electric power unnecessary, as well as bio-engineered cells that help the drone stay safe in areas with high temperatures and radiation.
Hull also said a set of enzymes was added to the drone to give it the ability to self-destruct, and that the enzymes would only trigger upon impact, time, or other conditions, FastCoExist reported.
The ability to self-grow makes the drone ideal for space, as the material could help organizations save money when bringing things on missions.
"Instead of taking parts and backups, you can just take a tiny sample of the bacteria or fungus you need to grow something like this drone," Hull said.
