4 ms·

Flying insect-like robot Gimball can crash and recover

39 points by poissonpie 13y ago

gannoq 13y ago
+videos from http://weborganizm.org/river/stream/2829 http://weborganizm.org/river/stream/2829
sillysaurus2 13y ago
How do flies do it? They don't have protective cages. Why doesn't a fly's wings break when it crashes? Why can't we replicate it mechanically?
- snoonan 13y ago
  My initial thought is that insect wings don't rotate, and so can't destroy themselves so easily. Cheap, powerful rotational motors comes with the risk of potential for self destruction. Flapping at that scale is a very hard problem. Apart from the microscopic flagellum, evolution never managed to produce a rotational motor since it's super hard to build decoupled components with biological hardware (you need two stomachs, hearts, etc to keep decoupled parts alive). Emulating a fly's actual method may be interesting research, but motors are probably better in the long run than flapping, a complex and difficult hack to the problem of flight.
  - Chestofdraw 13y ago
    Also, flies are tiny and move pretty slowly. A bird doesn't recover from flying into a wall very well.
- Hellenion 13y ago
  Flies have an exoskeleton which, unlike the quadcopters of our engineers, have many flexible parts. This is much like the cage only in a very different configuration. I don't know about the wings in particular, but I can imagine they are more flexible than brittle and may even be capable of growing scar tissue.
- Hellenion 13y ago
  Flies have an exoskeleton which, unlike the quadcopters of our engineers, have many flexible parts. This is much like the cage only in a very different configuration. I don't know about the wings in particular, but I can imagine they are more flexible than brittle and may even be capable of growing scar tissue.
- Hellenion 13y ago
  Flies have an exoskeleton which, unlike the quadcopters of our engineers, have many flexible parts. This is much like the cage only in a very different configuration. I don't know about the wings in particular, but I can imagine they are more flexible than brittle and may even be capable of growing scar tissue.
parley 13y ago
Here's a similar one the Japanese DOD (?) showed off a few years ago, I think, so I suppose the single-rotor (or dual on same axis) flying sphere with flaps has been around for a while: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA It's also supposed to be able to bump, roll and stuff, but it looks like the OP has improved on the idea quite a bit with the independent suspension/crash cage.
- YooLi 13y ago
  Real Genius - 1985 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbqJpn8fN8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbqJpn8fN8 though it did suffer from a launch problem or possibly a design problem... :)
ksrm 13y ago
Previous discussion (yesterday): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6640431 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6640431

39 points by poissonpie 13y ago

+videos from http://weborganizm.org/river/stream/2829 http://weborganizm.org/river/stream/2829

How do flies do it? They don't have protective cages. Why doesn't a fly's wings break when it crashes? Why can't we replicate it mechanically?

snoonan 13y ago
My initial thought is that insect wings don't rotate, and so can't destroy themselves so easily. Cheap, powerful rotational motors comes with the risk of potential for self destruction. Flapping at that scale is a very hard problem. Apart from the microscopic flagellum, evolution never managed to produce a rotational motor since it's super hard to build decoupled components with biological hardware (you need two stomachs, hearts, etc to keep decoupled parts alive). Emulating a fly's actual method may be interesting research, but motors are probably better in the long run than flapping, a complex and difficult hack to the problem of flight.
- Chestofdraw 13y ago
  Also, flies are tiny and move pretty slowly. A bird doesn't recover from flying into a wall very well.
Hellenion 13y ago
Flies have an exoskeleton which, unlike the quadcopters of our engineers, have many flexible parts. This is much like the cage only in a very different configuration. I don't know about the wings in particular, but I can imagine they are more flexible than brittle and may even be capable of growing scar tissue.
Hellenion 13y ago
Flies have an exoskeleton which, unlike the quadcopters of our engineers, have many flexible parts. This is much like the cage only in a very different configuration. I don't know about the wings in particular, but I can imagine they are more flexible than brittle and may even be capable of growing scar tissue.
Hellenion 13y ago
Flies have an exoskeleton which, unlike the quadcopters of our engineers, have many flexible parts. This is much like the cage only in a very different configuration. I don't know about the wings in particular, but I can imagine they are more flexible than brittle and may even be capable of growing scar tissue.

parley 13y ago

Here's a similar one the Japanese DOD (?) showed off a few years ago, I think, so I suppose the single-rotor (or dual on same axis) flying sphere with flaps has been around for a while: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA It's also supposed to be able to bump, roll and stuff, but it looks like the OP has improved on the idea quite a bit with the independent suspension/crash cage.

YooLi 13y ago
Real Genius - 1985 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbqJpn8fN8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbqJpn8fN8 though it did suffer from a launch problem or possibly a design problem... :)

ksrm 13y ago

Previous discussion (yesterday): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6640431 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6640431