We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
Advertiser Disclosure
Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.
How We Make Money
We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently of our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Engineering

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

What is Smart Dust?

By Brendan McGuigan
Updated: May 21, 2024
Views: 18,764
Share

Smartdust is a term used to describe groups of very small robots which may be used for monitoring and detection. Currently, the scale of smartdust is rather small, with single sensors the size of a deck of playing cards, but the hope is to eventually have robots as small as a speck of dust. Individual sensors of smartdust are often referred to as motes because of their small size. These devices are also known as MEMS, which stands for microelectromechanical sensors.

Smartdust has theoretical applications in virtually every field of science and industry. Research in the technologies is well-funded and sturdily based, and it is generally accepted that it is simply a matter of time before smartdust exists in a functional manner. Opponents question the risks to personal privacy, but proponents hold that the downsides are strongly outweighed by the positive benefits.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been funding smartdust research heavily since the late 1990s, seeing virtually limitless applications in the sphere of modern warfare. So far the research has been promising, with prototype smartdust sensors as small as 5mm. Costs have been dropping rapidly with technological innovations, bringing individual motes down to as little as $50 each, with hopes of dropping below $1 per mote in the near future.

Applications of these sensors are seemingly without end. Every aspect of life one examines opens up new avenues for smartdust. Smartdust may eventually be used to monitor traffic and better direct it, to accompany soldiers and alert them to any poisons or dangerous biological substances in the air, to follow people around and track their activities, to track defects in products as they come off of an assembly line, and even to enter human bodies and check for physiological problems.

Energy use is a major area of research in the field of smartdust. With devices so small, batteries present a massive addition of weight. It is therefore important to use absolutely minimal amounts of energy in communicating the data they collect to central hubs where it can be accessed by humans.

Development of smartdust continues at a breakneck speed, and it will no doubt soon be commonplace to have a vast army of thousands or millions of nearly invisible sensors monitoring our environment to ensure our safety and the efficiency of the machines around us.

Share
All The Science is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
Discussion Comments
By anon358011 — On Dec 08, 2013

I could use this now. I am currently living next door to two residences manufacturing something toxic. I have contacted law enforcement and since then, both are somehow venting their exhaust into my home.

By anon43152 — On Aug 26, 2009

This sounds a little more than creepy to me.

Although it may have many positive benefits, I can also see where it might impose upon one's human rights as well. I wonder if as much money is spent on, say, cancer research or one of the other, so far, incurable diseases? Nonetheless, this is knowledge worth knowing about. Thank you.

By anon7271 — On Jan 22, 2008

So this is what is killing hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Enter the Apocalypse (see "Morgellons").

Share
https://www.allthescience.org/what-is-smart-dust.htm
Copy this link
All The Science, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

All The Science, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.