A Russian neurotechnology company in Moscow with close ties to the national innovation system is testing a system that uses brain implants to transform ordinary pigeons into remotely controlled "biological drones" (biodrone). The project is code-named PJN-1. It is regarded as one of the radical attempts to use invasive neural interfaces in animals for monitoring and security purposes.
The core of the project is to perform cranial surgery on pigeons, implant electrodes directly into key areas of their brains responsible for direction and movement control, and send specific stimulation patterns through external devices to guide them to take off and continue flying in the direction preset by the operator, while allowing the pigeons to still subjectively feel like they are acting "spontaneously."
Each modified pigeon has a small "backpack" module installed on its back that integrates power, communication and navigation hardware. The module is powered by solar energy to support long-duration missions. The backpack has a built-in electronic system and GPS receiver, forming a closed-loop control: the operator can grasp the position of the pigeon in real time, correct the stimulation mode according to the trajectory, adjust the route at any time, or reassign tasks midway. Control instructions are sent wirelessly to the backpack, which is then transferred to electrodes implanted in the brain. The company claims that the operator can not only control the flight of a single pigeon, but also command an entire group of "biological drones" to move in groups in real time, completing formations and turns in the air by uploading route and direction prompts.
According to the performance data given by the company, a pigeon equipped with the PJN-1 system can continuously fly about 310 miles (about 500 kilometers) in a day, and if the weather conditions are good and the sunshine is sufficient, the cumulative range can exceed 1,850 miles (nearly 3,000 kilometers) in a week. The company believes that pigeons are an ideal initial carrier, on the one hand, because they are very common in Russian cities, and on the other hand, they are adaptable to dense urban environments and are not easily noticeable. In theory, if miniature cameras or other sensors are installed on pigeons, they can hover and stay over the city or near sensitive locations, while visually being the same as ordinary pigeons. The company stated that this framework can be used for monitoring and alerting critical facilities in the future, and the potential direction of extension to military and intelligence purposes is obvious.
The project team also proposed a roadmap for expansion to other species to meet the needs of larger loads or different environments. Founder Alexander Panov said that the current system is deployed on pigeons, but "any bird can be used as a carrier"; for tasks that require carrying larger sensors or communication equipment, the team is studying ravens with higher load-bearing capabilities as platforms, while for coastline monitoring, it is considering using the natural range of seagulls, and for ocean wide-area monitoring, it is envisioned using albatrosses and other long-endurance seabirds.
In terms of safety, the company makes a controversial argument: the risk of such a "biological drone" falling in an urban environment is no higher than the probability of falling due to natural death of an ordinary bird. The reason is that the pigeon retains its original flight ability, and the control system is only "slightly guided" at the decision-making level, so the overall air failure probability is close to the natural state, thus claiming that PJN-1 can be deployed in cities without causing new safety risks to the people on the ground. However, this statement has not yet cooperated with systematic data disclosure and has aroused doubts from the outside world.
The project obviously involves significant ethical controversies because it relies on invasive brain surgery on live animals. Neiry did not disclose how many birds died or suffered serious complications during the experiment. It only stated that it was "striving to achieve a 100% surgical survival rate," but did not provide current specific data, nor did it explain the evaluation and protection mechanism for the long-term welfare of the animals. Prior to this, the company had been criticized for its brain intervention in cows to increase milk production. Its neuroengineering technology has advanced from scientific research experiments to commercial scenarios, attracting the attention of animal rights organizations and the scientific research ethics community.
For the defense and security community, the PJN-1 embodies the prototype of a new class of “dual-use” neurotechnology: it combines invasive electrodes, solar electronics, GPS tracking, and real-time remote stimulation into a system that can be used in war zones for reconnaissance, surveillance, and even target designation. On the surface, they appear to be just a group of ordinary birds flying over cities or coastal areas, but if they are carrying sensors, communication or delivery devices, they can form a distributed sensing network or micro-delivery platform. This kind of surveillance method "clothed with nature" is expected to intensify the outside world's concerns about the lack of relevant experimental boundaries, regulatory frameworks and international norms. As such projects come to light, the debate surrounding the extent to which "biological drones" should be developed and what kind of ethical review and legal constraints should be accepted for related experiments is bound to continue to heat up.