Autonomous micro-drone achieves first air-to-air insect kill on the way ‘towards completely eradicating mosquitoes’ — 40-gram unit uses car parking sensors, can eliminate insects at up to 26 feet

A micro-drone designed to locate and eradicate mosquitoes has passed an important milestone. Tornyol Systems shared a video where the eponymous autonomous drone chalked up its first live air-to-air kill. For some reason (perhaps demonstration visibility), the 40g (1.4 ounce) drone’s first confirmed kill on video features a moth. Tornyol boldly claims that the demo shows a significant stride has been made “towards completely eradicating mosquitoes.”

Tornyol Systems co-founder Alex Toussaint shared the above Tweet, congratulating the engineering team that has worked alongside him on the project. On the company website, there is a mosquito-hostile manifesto laid out, which provides insight into the company’s primary drone development goal.

“Mosquitoes are one of humanity’s oldest and worst enemies. They kill more than 700,000 people each year — more than all current wars,” according to the firm’s mission statement. “More than 700 million people contract a mosquito-borne disease each year. They impact many countries, including the West, with thousands of cases of West Nile Virus in the US alone.” It aims to use technology, including this “small, inexpensive, and yet very fast” micro-drone, to “completely eradicate mosquitoes from areas where humans live.”

The underlying motivation of Tornyol Systems first became apparent back at Hackaday Supercon 2024 when Toussaint shared a presentation about How to Detect (and Kill) Mosquitoes With Off-the-Shelf Electronics.

Tornyol’s technology

Since those initial presentations, it looks like the tech has been significantly refined and miniaturized. Currently, the platform is dependent on the LeSonar2 phased array sonar base station with 380 smartphone microphones and an Artix-7 FPGA to map the world in 3D.

This feeds the drone enough information to measure 0.1 mm movements and identify mosquitoes through their unique wingbeat signature. The micro-drone is sent commands by a PC, which also leverages “car park assist sensors, and some clever DSP” to seek and kill mozzies up to 8m (~26 feet) away.

We’ve previously reported on ground-based AI-enhanced mosquito zappers, but this is the first time we’ve seen an air-to-air solution. Tornyol says that it is rolling out deployment on embedded hardware “in the next few weeks.” I guess that’s removing the need for a PC.

U.S. residents interested in purchasing an autonomous Tornyol drone and base station are being asked to stump up a refundable $100 deposit. Then, there are two payment plans available. Choose a $50-a-month subscription or an “own it forever” $1,100 one-time fee.