Tiny fly-inspired RoboBee takes flight at Harvard A quartet of Harvard University reseachers have designed, manufactured, and flown a tiny, fly-inspired aerial robot that could be the forerunner of swarms of drosophilistic drones. To put their achievement in boffinary terms, as did the authors in the abstract of their paper, published in the latest issue of the jounal Science …
We've seen things like this before they have been much bigger and at least some bits were bought in.
At this scale everything has be designed and a mfg process worked out to make it on a reasonable scale.
In amongst the various concerns about surveillance drones might I also suggest an anti-fly swarm that can engage in fly-on-fly combat to stop any airborne critter pestering you?
A sort of mosquito squadron.
A desktop fan will be more than sufficient to blow them away. I've got some small R/C planes that weigh about .6oz and a good gust from the central air will blow them off course or force them down. All you need to defeat these little guys is an oscillating desk fan. Alternatively, if you wanted to play fair you could use a small R/C helicopter and just fly over them.
I'm sure it's all very impressive but it will be much more impressive if the tether doesn't have to be there, it has circuitry on-board that allows it to navigate to useful locations autonomously, it can re-fuel, it can carry a useful payload and has the has power to do all these things.
I'm sure it's sufficiently impressive to those in the know but ability to fly has been known for a long time. Equally, high frequency oscillations driving systems are not new. However an efficient and small scale fuel system that has high energy density and is able to be replenished from the environment would be something to write home about. If it's small thing that can sustain flight while tethered not so much, in my opinion.
as was explained on the box of a toy helicopter:
"these are basically 1/40th scale helicopters. Full-sized helicopters can't fly well in high winds-if a full size helicopter has difficulty in 50 mph wind,your model will have difficulty with 1-2mph. There's nothing to be done about it."
A lot more power and wing area that can be used to fight wind than a robofly and they're useless at anything stronger than the flatulence after Taco Bell. Turn on a decent fan (or hell, the A/C) and these "drones" are at the mercy of the system.
Increase the power through some sort of future-wish battery and motor tech? People will hear the flying dentist drill from two closed doors away.
AAA-CHOO! and the latest snooper pastes itself against the wall...Hopefully not carrying some sort of antipersonnel chemical agents when ya swat it.
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