RoboBee The Flying Robot Insect

The world of robotics has certainly advanced by leaps and bounds over the years, and it seems that the advancements made in this particular category is not going to stop anytime soon. Well, scientists over in the US have managed to come up with a robot that is extremely small – we are talking about one that is roughly the size of a fly, where it is capable of performing the agile manoeuvres of those pesky insects, minus all the bacteria and filth that real flies carry around, of course.

The RoboBee was specially built from carbon fibre, and it tips the scales at a fraction of a gram, boasting super-fast electronic “muscles” to power its wings. Developed by the brains over at Harvard University, it seems that these small robots might eventually function as a tool in search and rescue operations, although I am quite sure that the Defense Department would want to take a closer look at it as well. Who knows? It might eventually be equipped with a payload, sorta like the tiny drones that we saw in GI Joe: Retaliation.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Robots
Tags: darpa