This article was taken from the May 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Buffeted by gusts of wind, we are flying high over Naples' business district, in the Campania region of Italy. We can see the whole area, even directly below us, through a pair of 3D video goggles.
The aircraft in which Wired has just "flown" is the StillFly, a drone designed to beat eco criminals on their own turf.
Massimiliano Lega, who devised and built it at the Parthenope University of Naples, says with undisguised pride: "We can get inside the pollution and map in 3D in real time. We analyse anomalous substances on water and trace their path back to the source, which is impossible with traditional methods. Only satellites have similar capabilities." Except satellites are 30,000km above the Earth, whereas the drones can slalom through urban canyons -- and are thousands of times cheaper.
Drones have been used for military purposes as far back as the
first world war, but are only now coming into their own. Lega has no doubts as to the potential extent of their use. At 40, after a stint at the University of California, Lega returned to Italy to dedicate himself to fighting environmental crime. The result of his research and development is the StillFly -- designed and built in Italy.
The insect-like craft has a wingspan of a metre and looks like something from Avatar. It weighs only two kilograms thanks to its compact instruments, which include GPS sensors, an infrared camera, three accelerometers to keep it horizontal, a 3D vision system and a barometric altimeter. Yet this flying laboratory weighs less than a typical laptop.
While the pilot sees through the 3D video goggles, the investigators get a different view altogether.
Lega shows us a monitor displaying a surreal-coloured landscape, generated by the drone's infrared sensors. "The yellow blob in the
purple sea is sewage," he explains. "You can see its extent and even its origin. Now it's up to the coast guard to investigate and build a case." A few days earlier, Lega had spotted a tanker moored along the Neapolitan coast that was washing out its oil tanks and pouring waste into the sea. The boat was anchored at the mouth of a river to disguise the illegal dumping in the plume of fresh water, but the StillFly's sensors had detected the unmistakable chemical signature of hydrocarbons. The tanker was immediately inspected by the coast guard and suffered two days' detention in port for releasing harmful substances into the sea.
Naples has developed a reputation for pollution and illegal dumping -- much of it blamed on the mafia and unscrupulous businesses. Two of Europe's most polluted rivers -- the Sarno and the Volturno -- pass through the region. StillFly has succeeded here where more conventional policing has failed, spotting several cases of illegal dumping. In the coming months similar devices could be adopted by police units throughout Italy, and Nasa has recently announced an agreement with Lega's university to bring the technology to the US. Perhaps StillFly was an offer they couldn't refuse?
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
