This morning Telstar Logistics Chief Prognostication Officer Paul Saffo sent us an email about a fascinating new development in the field of insectoid robotics. Paul writes:
Long anticipated, but quite extraordinary nonetheless, this is a robotic fly wing with 3 degrees of freedom built with mesoscale smart composite structures. The wing is 5x stronger than a biological fly wing, but behaviour is nearly identical. Be sure to watch the video on the webpage. Makes me proud to be a Harvard alum!
Oh, and say goodbye to privacy, cause when these things eventually deploy out of the lab, we ain't gonna trust anything that buzzes...
He's probably right. But in the meantime, check out this impressive video of first flight of an insect-sized robotic fly, created by Robert Wood, an assistant professor of engineering and applied sciences at Harvard:
Thanks Paul!
LINKS:
Tinker, Tailor, Robot, Fly (Harvard magazine, Jan-Feb 2007)
Robotic Fly (Video hosted at the Harvard magazine website)
PREVIOUSLY:
Indoor Aircraft Aerobatics by Remote Control
The Pink Floyd was hilarious, especially coming after the flat narration. Very cool.
Posted by: Phill | 21 January 2008 at 10:00 PM
Very cool! Any word on the development a high-tech fly swat to counter these little spies?
Posted by: Sailor | 28 January 2008 at 07:17 AM