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TUCSON - By now you've probably heard of UAV's - unmanned aerial vehicles - the government uses them to help patrol the border.

Now scientists at the University of Arizona are developing much smaller versions called MVA's or micro aerial vehicles

It may look like big boys playing with tiny toys, but these boys hope someday their toys could help secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

The pilots come from the UA's Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department, and their toys are micro air vehicles - miniatures that these scientists hope can help law officers catch terrorists and drug smugglers and other intruders.

"You can have one border patrol agent execute a program launching 20 of these, and you can fly 20 trails at once and he can be watching a video display and he can basically be doing the job of what otherwise would take far more border patrol agents.|

"It's more than just military applications too. You can do search and rescue. It's helping people a lot without putting anyone else in danger."

Researchers are working to build the best flying machine possible so they study real locust wings.

"We want to make [it] as efficient wings or as efficient systems as the natural ones."

Researchers are working to develop a device that could be both a fast plane and a slow hovering craft.

"You could take a vehicle like this. You can fly toward a building quickly and efficiently and when you get there you can transition and you can fly slowly through the window. You can fly through different rooms, and then when you're finished with your mission you'll still have enough juice left that you can actually exit the building and fly back to base."

Without putting human observers in harm's way.