The startup Tornyol, which has received modest private funding – including from Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin – has unveiled a drone designed to target mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are carriers of dangerous diseases, making their control an ongoing challenge. According to the developers, their approach can reduce costs by a factor of one hundred compared with conventional methods. The team is currently seeking volunteers to test the drone under real‑world conditions.
Each year, mosquitoes cause approximately 700,000 deaths and infect another 700 million people, posing a risk to around 4 billion people worldwide. Diseases such as malaria and dengue fever remain serious threats. Spraying insecticides or biopesticides is often costly and of limited effectiveness. Tornyol proposes an alternative approach: local mosquito control using autonomous drones without chemicals.
Each drone weighs just 40 g and is based on a modified toy with autonomous navigation. It can patrol an area independently and eliminate mosquitoes using only its propellers – purely kinetic action, without toxic substances.
Mosquito detection is achieved using echolocation. Each drone is equipped with a phased microphone array paired with an ultrasonic transmitter adapted from automotive parking sensors. An artificial intelligence algorithm analyzes the Doppler effect from wingbeats and generates a spectrogram for each detected object. This enables precise identification of the species and even the sex of the mosquito. The developers emphasize that the system does not harm other insects – for example, it can clearly distinguish a wasp from a mosquito.
The system includes a base station for charging and coordination. According to the team’s calculations, ten drones are sufficient to clear a one‑square‑kilometre area – such as a garden or residential zone – of mosquitoes and provide continuous, around‑the‑clock protection. One of Tornyol’s engineers previously worked on ultrasonic guidance systems for missiles, which the team cites as a factor contributing to the platform’s high accuracy and reliability.
So far, the startup has successfully tested the system in virtual simulations and is seeking early adopters for the first operational units. With a $100 deposit, the subscription cost for the product is set at $50 per month. For the first time in human history, it is possible that the fight against the planet’s deadliest animal – the mosquito – might be won not by sprays, but by drones.
Source: Ycombinator
