Scientists have built the world's smallest robot, the size of a fly and as agile and swift.
The world of electronics is deriving its ideas from biology by taking models of insects to develop next generation devices. Scientists are keen to take technology to the next level by reinventing and remodeling models provided by nature. After some exceptional inventions by scientists in the past such as a tissue-engineered Jellyfish last year and the first compound-eye camera prototype, which is derived from the design of an insect's eye, scientists have shown time and again that technology has reached the next level in the world of science.
An addition to the unique inventions is the development of the world's smallest flying robot by scientists at the Harvard University.
The insect-sized flying robots are the stepping stone to small flying independent robots, which can undertake several operations that are beyond human reach.
"It's hard to argue that anything is more agile than a housefly - I think anyone who's tried to swat [one] would agree," said Dr. Rob Wood of the Wyss Institute at Harvard, and the lead researcher on the project. "This is the first controlled flight of an insect-scaled robot."
Kevin Ma, a graduate student at Harvard's Wyss Institute and a member of the robot team, told NBC News that this is the world's smallest flying robot ever made. He said that these robots can be very useful in search-and-rescue operations when finding trapped survivors in collapsed buildings or other dangerous situations. Furthermore, these robots could also act like real insects and help in pollination given the current situation of declining honeybees population. "They [could] be used for environmental monitoring, to be dispersed into a habitat to sense trace chemicals or other factors."
Dr. Ma and his team led by Dr. Wood said that to build such a small flying robot the team had to put in a lot of efforts and hard work by adjusting the right amount of turbulence and thrust and matching wing beats to that of a fly.
The researchers, however, built their thin, flexible wings and adjusted the effect of lift and thrust to help them hover around at incredibly high speeds. The wings flapped approximately 120 times per second, which was made possible by the rapid switching on and off of the voltage. "We get it to contract and relax, like biological muscle," Dr Ma said.
The current flying robots do not have their own power source and have to be tethered with tiny power cords. Dr. Ma said that in the coming years his team is geared to design a "fully wireless flying robot".
"Until then, this research project continues to be very captivating work because of its similarity to natural insects. It is a demonstration of how far human engineering ingenuity has reached, to be mimicking natural systems," Dr. Ma said.
The team plans to build the brains for the flying robots, which will be tiny and powerful. The researchers will create a brain chipset which will be much smaller than mobile phone microchips. They will also enhance the power source, which will enable these flying robots to be air borne for a longer time than the present 10- 15 minutes.
The research is published in the journal Science, Thursday.
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