Researchers from the University of Bologna and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich claim to have developed the world’s smallest autonomous drone.

When it comes to the nano-drone industry, this is a milestone. With a smaller battery comes a decrease in power and flight time. For nano-drones, which are defined by maximum four-inch diameters, developing a model somewhere in between these two poles has been a longtime struggle for engineers.

“We did not test this extensively, but from first tests, we saw that we were running out of battery after approximately five minutes,” said researcher Antonio Loquercio. “It would be nice to achieve 30 minutes of autonomy. This would be more than enough to inspect, for example, medium-sized warehouses and get back to the charging station.”

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