Just in time for Halloween, Kevin Cirilli takes flight into the shadows with Dr. Nitin Sanket, assistant professor of robotics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute — whose lab is building tiny flying robots that navigate like bats. Forget broomsticks and ghosts — these real-life “bat bots” use sound and echolocation to find people trapped in smoke, fog, or darkness, where human rescuers — and even drones — can’t see. Funded by the National Science Foundation, Dr. Sanket’s team is designing ultra-light, sound-guided robots powered by AI that can swarm into collapsed buildings, wildfires, or disaster zones — navigating purely through sound, like a colony of digital bats. Kevin and Dr. Sanket explore how nature’s oldest flyers are inspiring the next generation of autonomous rescue tech, what it means for the future of disaster response, and why these “creatures of the night” might just become heroes of the light.

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