Micromechanical Flying Insect

The Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI) project is research effort to develop a flying robot based on living insects flight techniques, i.e. an ornithopter. The flying robot will be capable of sustained autonomous flight. The design of artificial fly is based on bionics principles and relies on nanotechnology for actual implementation. The flight of ordinary flies is sustained by non-steady state aerodynamics forces and is guided by integrated inertial and visual sensors. Ordinary flies also have high power-to-weight ratio.

Current status

  1. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley led by Dr. Ron Fearing have developed MFI[1] with parameters similar to ordinary fly and they claim it will be flying.
  2. Dr. Robert Wood of Harvard has created a robot weighing 60 mg and with a wingspan of 3 cm. Such a robot [2] has been successfully launched [3].
  3. WowWee is developing a toy dragonfly that would fly under remote control.
  4. Japanese researchers introduced radio-controlled robotic fly at International Symposium on Flying Insects and Robots[4]
  5. Students at Delft University of Technology have demonstrated a 3 g flying ornithopter with an integrated camera[5].

References

  1. ^ Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI)
  2. ^ Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs)
  3. ^ Robotic Insect Takes Off
  4. ^ Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs.
  5. ^ DelFly Micro Project