{"id":14117,"date":"2014-02-12T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.expo21xx.com\/news\/?p=14117"},"modified":"2016-10-25T12:36:55","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T10:36:55","slug":"micro-drones-flying-robots-universities-robotics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expo21xx.com\/news\/micro-drones-flying-robots-universities-robotics\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyes in the sky: Micro-drones and flying robots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forget about the model or miniature planes and kites you used to fly\u00a0decades ago\u00a0<\/span>with your childhood friends simply for fun. Today\u2019s miniature planes and kites have morphed into micro-drones or micro flying robots, equipped with micro mechanisms, enhanced aerodynamics capabilities and monitoring equipment to assist in aerial reconnaissance missions. The basic anatomy of these new models are mostly inspired by flies, birds and bees, small and light, winged or propelled and vaguely comparable to the older models. Needless, to say, the fun has shifted to the \u201cbig boys\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Harvard<\/i> and Middlesex<\/i> universities and the L\u2019<\/i>\u00c9cole Polytechnique F\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne<\/i>, to name a few, the level of research interest in drones gives credence to the notion that micro-flying robots are now of high priority. Here, they explore not only questions in micro-mechanics, actuation, fluid and control, but also on how these unmanned aerial vehicles could serve social, military, environmental monitoring\u00a0purposes\u00a0<\/span>and <\/span>search-and-rescue operations<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

RoboBee – the world’s smallest flying robot<\/strong><\/p>\n

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RoboBees
Source: Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory.<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

The biologically-inspired flapping-wing drone developed at the Harvard Microrobotics laboratory<\/a>\u00a0is a called RoboBees<\/i>. It weighs as little as 60mg and has a body not much wider than a cent. The fine line between weight and size is balanced out by aerodynamic\u00a0wafer-thin wings that flap at 120 times per second and are made of micro-fabrication and arthropods systems powerful enough to generate take off.<\/p>\n

Watch the video below and find out more about this project\u00a0at wyss.harvard.edu\/<\/a><\/p>\n