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The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding Wood’s research in the hope that it will lead to stealth surveillance robots for the battlefield and urban environments. The robot’s small size and fly-like appearance are critical to such missions. “You probably wouldn’t notice a fly in the room, but you certainly would notice a hawk,” Wood says.
Recreating a fly’s efficient movements in a robot roughly the size of the real insect was difficult, however, because existing manufacturing processes couldn’t be used to make the sturdy, lightweight parts required. The motors, bearings, and joints typically used for large-scale robots wouldn’t work for something the size of a fly. “Simply scaling down existing macro-scale techniques will not come close to the performance that we need,” Wood says.
Cool. How annoying are those pop up ads after you follow the link though? Extremely yucky usability.
Related: Mini Helicopter Masters Insect Navigation Trick - Micromechanical Flying Insect - Robofly- World’s Lightest Flying Robot - Magnificent Flying Machine
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July 23rd, 2007 at 8:09 am
Cool, it’s like something off Alias (Jen Garner show). Must be incredibly expensive…
Haha I like your math question spam proofing - there are probably quite a few less mathematically minded people who’ll get it wrong
July 26th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Oh great, bugs already freak me out, let alone mechanical ones controlled by the government.
December 9th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
“Roaches are gross. Robots are good. But — cockroach-controlled robots?”
December 10th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
“Walking on water may seem like a miracle to humans. But it is a humdrum achievement for the little water strider, which is able to bounce up and down on water too…”