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Unleashed, Robo-Insect Takes Flight
- sweetcherrypie 7y agoWhy didn't they title the article "Flight of the Robo-bee"
- laegooose 7y agoCombine these with IoT security, and Black Mirror S3E6 is not fiction anymore
- dwighttk 7y agoIf that episode lasted for a few seconds.
- i_am_nomad 7y agoYet another robotics article where a potential use is “searching for survivors.”
- Wingman4l7 7y agoSurvivors, no doubt, from a missile strike that was instigated from intel sourced via robo-insect.
- mtgx 7y agoYes, "searching for survivors," to ensure they don't escape and tell anyone.
- 0_gravitas 7y agoTheres an xkcd somewhere about that
- SisRob 7y agoIt astounds me how much "energy" can insect "store" given their body size.
- red75prime 7y agoFuels generally have higher energy density than batteries. Research like ([0]) can, in time, result in systems which are on par or exceed biological ones. [0]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235043961_Fuel-Powered_Artificial_Muscles_for_the_Robotic_Soldier https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235043961_Fuel-Powe...
- carapace 7y agoPaper: "Untethered flight of an insect-sized flapping-wing microscale aerial vehicle" > Heavier-than-air flight at any scale is energetically expensive. This is greatly exacerbated at small scales and has so far presented an insurmountable obstacle for untethered flight in insect-sized (mass less than 500 milligrams and wingspan less than 5 centimetres) robots. These vehicles1,2,3,4 thus need to fly tethered to an offboard power supply and signal generator owing to the challenges associated with integrating onboard electronics within a limited payload capacity. Here we address these challenges to demonstrate sustained untethered flight of an insect-sized flapping-wing microscale aerial vehicle. The 90-milligram vehicle uses four wings driven by two alumina-reinforced piezoelectric actuators to increase aerodynamic efficiency (by up to 29 per cent relative to similar two-wing vehicles5) and achieve a peak lift-to-weight ratio of 4.1 to 1, demonstrating greater thrust per muscle mass than typical biological counterparts6. The integrated system of the vehicle together with the electronics required for untethered flight (a photovoltaic array and a signal generator) weighs 259 milligrams, with an additional payload capacity allowing for additional onboard devices. Consuming only 110–120 milliwatts of power, the system matches the thrust efficiency of similarly sized insects such as bees7. This insect-scale aerial vehicle is the lightest thus far to achieve sustained untethered flight (as opposed to impulsive jumping8 or liftoff9). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1322-0 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1322-0
- Zenst 7y agoHow susceptible are these to bird strikes/attacks? Asking as birds eat insects, will they be able to easily discriminate these from the real insects I wonder.
- pazimzadeh 7y agoGreat point.. What if it could emit a specific noise or scent to warn/repel birds?
- aldoushuxley001 7y agoThese seem like the perfect poison delivery mechanism... no one would ever know.