Skip to main content

Harvard’s robotic insects fly for the first time


Robot Insects
They’re a source of fascination for some and paranoia for others – robot insects, which are about the size of your standard house fly and capable of flying in mostly the same fashion. This week the first flight of robotic insects in a Harvard lab was detailed in the journal Science, along with an image of one of the tiny creatures in action, which we have after the jump.

The first flight, according to the Harvard announcement, took place at 3AM one day in the summer of 2012 at the helm of grad student Pakpong Chirarattananon. The robot measured in
at half the size of a paperclip, and took flight through a pre-destined route established by presets. This flight was recorded by the student and promptly shared with colleagues.
Such a seemingly small project is the by-product of a lot of work – to the tune of over a decade, according to Harvard. This represents the first controlled flight of a robot as small as an insect; so-called “insect robots”. Its design is inspired by a fly, using two wings that beat 120 times per second. From here, work will be started on things like wireless flight, autonomy, and colony coordination.
Said SEAS professor of engineering and applied sciences Robert J. Wood: “This is what I have been trying to do for literally the last 12 years. It’s really only because of this lab’s recent breakthroughs in manufacturing, materials, and design that we have even been able to try this. And it just worked, spectacularly well.”
[via Harvard]

Enhanced by Zemanta

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LG’s first flexible OLED phone due before the year is out

LG plans to launch a flexible OLED smartphone before the end of the year, the company’s VP of mobile has confirmed, though it’s unclear to what extent the work-in-progress handset will actually flex. The OLED panel in question is the handiwork of LG Display according to VP of LG mobile Yoon Bu-hyun, the WSJ  reports, with the proposed device set to launch sometime in Q4. LG Display’s work on flexible OLEDs has been underway for some time, though the company’s efforts have perhaps been overshadowed somewhat by rival Samsung’s YOUM development. Last year, according to a Korea Times report, LG Display was preparing for
Flexible displays are the Future of IT Industry! A part from 4k and smart home appliances, the CES 2013 saw a lot of attention being drawn towards bendable, flexible displays. The elasticised display idea isn’t something new as we have seen hoards of device concepts being crafted around flexible, bendable and even foldable displays. These concept devices give us a futuristic feel, be it a flexible phone to be worn around the wrist or a phone that opens up to turn into a tablet or PSP-like device. But how far is this future? Nokia has been toying with the idea ever since we remember. The technology sounds very fascinating and the possibilities and the extent to which bendable displays could be used are vast and leave us spellbound. However, these have always been concepts and we haven’t seen any device materialise in the real world. There have been several technologies that were conceived in these years and all have been put to their practical use. But the bendable d

Xarius: Charge Your Mobile From Air

Xarius is a portable energy generator that allows to charge electrical appliances by the use of windpower in areas without electricity. Its lightweight and compact design makes the wind turbine to a perfect companion on backpacking trips with little luggage. It is composed of a foldable three-wing-system and an internal energy generator. The integrated rope makes it easy to adapt to any environment.Hooks are attached to both of its ends to tighten the rope and open the wings at the same time using the resulting tension. For convenient charging the battery is permanently installed, so that the electrical device can be charged inside the tent. The LED on the hook shows the current charge of battery. The pulsating orange indicates that the wind turbine has to recharge. Even at low wind speeds the blades begin to rotate autonomously.