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A robotic dragonfly with a wingspan of 63 cm
- sodiumphosphate 14y agoFesto is just fascinating. I feel like a child every time they produce a new video like this.
- lenazegher 14y agoI honestly had no idea such things were possible. Aside from the sheer amazing delight, are there advantages to flapping-wing modes of flight?
- DoubleCluster 14y agoIt's the future! I think that it would be great for agility, and perhaps to mimic insects so the army can use them covertly.
- ams6110 14y agoOr to replace the bees (see "Bees Dying" currently on the HN front page) if/when they go extinct
- fosfori 14y agoThere must be some, I guess, but certainly not the comfort of possible passengers according to the video.
- beambot 14y agoThere was a Georgia Tech spinoff that was commercializing something like this: http://www.hizook.com/blog/2012/11/14/robot-dragonfly-techject-new-georgia-tech-spinoff-company http://www.hizook.com/blog/2012/11/14/robot-dragonfly-techje...
- Thieum22 14y agoThe ornithopter article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithopter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithopter gives some details about such design. In SF, they are also part of Dune lore : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_of_the_Dune_universe#Ornithopter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_of_the_Dune_universe...
- pcarmichael 14y agoWhile I am amazed at the engineering and seriously impressed at what they accomplished, I can't help but watch the video and think that that is one portly-looking dragonfly.
- monsterix 14y agoYep! Though for a first generation it looks quite good. It is quite functional indeed, and a great achievement for the engineers. But yes, the tail and head seem to pick up a lot vibration of swinging wings. Can't wait for the next iteration!
- escherba 14y agoLooks like the park of the Permian period will be robotic.
- scotty79 14y agoThat's a good PR. Instead of paying TV to say "FESTO makes best manufacturing automation devices" in a fancy way, they just dedicated some engineers and some budget to making cool things no-one ever did before.
- Lagged2Death 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn,_Invisible_Boy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn,_Invisible_Boy
- pravda 14y agoThe second thing I thought about after seeing that video was a story I had read a long time ago about a telepresence mechanical dragonfly. And then shazam, I clicked the link!
- digikata 14y agoIt's always nice to see something like this, but just for some context there's many people doing similar things: Two Wings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn5pPy9BX3w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn5pPy9BX3w Four Wings http://youtu.be/rJwIhnFxuWQ http://youtu.be/rJwIhnFxuWQ More wings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyDLs0w48tA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyDLs0w48tA
- neya 14y agoThat's so cool! At 63cm, I wouldn't exactly call it a dragon fly though...A flying squirrel maybe? :D
- pbaehr 14y agoYou must have some weird looking squirrels where you live.
- neya 14y agoNot exactly where I live, but there's a mountain nearby and I recently happened to go trekking, there were some giant squirrels - At the size of an average puppy dog, or an over-grown cat...
- Falling3 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaloprepus_caerulatus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaloprepus_caerulatus
- splotcheleven 14y agoReally old dragonfly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura Meganeura is a genus of extinct insects from the Carboniferous period approximately 300 million years ago, which resembled and are related to the present-day dragonflies. With wingspans of up to 65 cm (25.6 in), M. monyi is one of the largest known flying insect species; the Permian Meganeuropsis permiana is another. Meganeura were predatory, and fed on other insects, and even small amphibians.
- neya 14y agoWow! Thanks for the info..here the dragon flies have a span of maximum say, something under 10 cm...so, was surprised to see something at 63 cm..
- samstave 14y agoWhats really interesting is that the amount of oxygen in the air impacts the size of insects. There was a study where by increasing the amount of oxygen in the air, in just a few generations, insect were gaining as much as 10% in size.
- SEJeff 14y agoSo what I find interesting is a swarm of these suckers. Put cameras on them and send a small swarm of 40-50 into a building. The fun part would be writing the pathfinding code so that they don't hit eachother.
- scarmig 14y agoI wonder how often real life dragonflys hit each other.
- scotto 14y agoDoes anyone know what servos they run in these?
- chrisdl 14y agoverge has done a piece on it too now. http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/29/4160620/dragonfly-drone-festo-roboticopter-hovers-flies-backward-in-video http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/29/4160620/dragonfly-drone-fe...