Despite their seeming simplicity, insects have proven very hard to duplicate by robotic devices. Limitations on weight (too heavy), power requirements (large batteries), and autonomy (no software for self-guidance) have hamstrung this field of robotic study for decades. But no longer! Advances in nanotechnology, materials science, and neural software have all come together to allow the first of no-doubt many insect-based robotic systems to come online.One of these systems is the brainchild of Robert Wood, a leader in robotic insect research at Harvard University. It is known as the "robot-fly" project, and it has recently achieved a major milestone, namely flight. From the article at MIT's Technology Review:
Weighing only 60 milligrams, with a wingspan of three centimeters, the tiny robot's movements are modeled on those of a real fly.
After more than seven years of work studying flight dynamics and improving various parts, Wood's fly finally took off this spring. "When I got the fly to take off, I was literally jumping up and down in the lab," he says.
Other researchers have built robots that mimic insects, but this is the first two-winged robot built on such a small scale that can take off using the same motions as a real fly.
It is hard to overemphasize how groundbreaking this is. Mankind's ability to fly exploits the
partial vacuum created by air moving over a surface to create lift (even helicopters do this) horizontally, but insect flight is much more like that of birds and involves deriving lift from the actual up and down motions of the wings themselves. (Here is an excellent Wikipedia article on the whole business.) Finally being able to create a device that can fly using this form of lift is the equivalent of discovering a new type or rocket engine that doesn't require massive amounts of fuel (like this one)! It will open the doors to a huge new capability down the road as its functionality is fully developed. (For even more robotics research, check out the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory.)Of course, Dr. Wood isn't the only researcher in the robot insect field. He trained under Ron Fearing at the University of California at Berkeley; Dr. Fearing also has a robotic fly project. From its project web page:
The MFI is designed based on biomimetic principles to capture some of the exceptional flight performance achieved by true flies. The high performance of true flies is based on large forces generated by non-steady state aerodynamics, a high power-to-weight ratio motor system, and a high-speed control system with tightly integrated visual and inertial sensors. Our design analysis shows us that piezoelectric actuators and flexible thorax structures can provide the needed power density and wing stroke, and that adequate power can be supplied by lithium batteries charged by solar cells.
Clearly Dr. Wood's success will be a big help to his mentor's research as well. Dr. Fearing's work is only one part of a considerable number of robotics research institutes at Berkeley such as CIBER, Poly-PEDAL, and COINS, as well as the overall Robotics Initiative there. We here at Adventures look forward to seeing many more exciting robots emerge from their laboratories. (Images courtesy of the Harvard Robotics Laboratory and the Berkely MFI project.)NB: In what may not be a coincidence, recent reports of dragonfly-sized robotic surveillance robots hovering around a major political demonstration in Washington, D.C. may indicate that classified work on larger robotic systems has proceeded to the deployment stage. Talos has his own mechanical spies out checking up on this as we speak.
