---
title: "Scientists Want to Use Moths to Blanket the Earth in Tiny Sensors"
description: "Scientists built tiny sensors that can safely detach and fall to the ground after a moth carries it to some hard-to-reach destination."
date: "2020-10-13"
modified: "2020-10-13"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/use-moths-blanket-earth-tiny-sensors"
categories:
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "insects"
  - "robots"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientists Want to Use Moths to Blanket the Earth in Tiny Sensors

![Scientists built tiny sensors that can safely detach and fall to the ground after a moth carries it to some hard-to-reach destination.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/use-moths-blanket-earth-tiny-sensors.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Mark Stone/University of Washington\</em\>*

## Special Delivery

Scientists have a plan to cover the Earth in tiny sensors that record parameters like temperature and humidity. And to help them with particularly hard-to-reach areas, they're recruiting an army of bugs.

A team of University of Washington scientists built a tiny, lightweight sensor that can survive long drops, and now wants them to stick them onto moths that then distribute them all over the place, *[Digital Trends ](<https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/carrier-moths-dropping-smart-sensors/>)*[reports](<https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/carrier-moths-dropping-smart-sensors/>). It's like using drones or helicopters to airdrop supplies, but shrunk down to a thousandth the size.

## Leaf On The Wind

The real challenge was building a sensor that could both survive a drop of 72 feet while being light enough to be carried by a moth. In [the team's research](<https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3372224.3419981>), published last month in the journal *MobiCom '20: Proceedings of the 26th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking*, they describe a sensor that's so small and light it safely flutters to the ground.

"This is a strategy people use in disaster scenarios to deliver food and medical supplies, and is usually done with large planes or helicopters," study coauthor and Washington engineer Vikram Iyer told *Digital Trends*. "That got us thinking, can we use this same idea with much smaller drones, or even live insects, to release sensors across a large area?"

## Bon Voyage!

When a moth reaches a location where the scientists want to drop a sensor, they can remotely trigger it to detach, according to *Digital Trends*.

For now, the team is focused on weather-monitoring sensors, but they say that down the road, the same approach could be used to distribute all sorts of tech.

**READ MORE:** [Scientists want to blanket the Earth in sensors. Their secret weapon? Moths](<https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/carrier-moths-dropping-smart-sensors/>) \[*Digital Trends*\]

**More on robo-bugs:** *[Scientists Build Tiny Cameras for Beetles to Carry Around](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/beetle-sized-camera-livestream-bug-life>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)