Monday, May 6, 2013

Robot ‘fly’ is big step for Harvard researchers

Harvard University researchers have for the first time replicated in a tiny, bug-like robot the agility of the common fly. With a gossamer body of microscale electronics, the penny-sized robot can lift off, hover, and maneuver albeit only while tethered to a leash that supplies power and provides information about its location in mid-air.

“It’s the goal of creating the most agile manmade thing that’s ever existed,” said Rob Wood, an engineering professor at Harvard and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

The progress reported Thursday in the journal Science is the culmination of more than a decade of work, and is an important step toward building a colony of RoboBees that can fly by themselves and coordinate their collective movements to achieve tasks.

It is still unclear what the best application would be for a fleet of airborne bug-sized robots, but the technology could have a wide range of uses, from surveillance to pollinating crops.

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Read also:

Robotic insect: world's smallest flying robot makes first flight (Telegraph.co.uk)

Flight of the RoboBee: Tiny hovering robot creates buzz (Christian Science Monitor)

Meet RoboBee, a bug-sized, bio-inspired flying robot (Los Angeles Times)

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