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Flying Robots Made From Cellophane?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wrap-around-heads-as-weapons dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers have discovered that ordinary cellulose is a piezoelectric and smart material that can flap when exposed to an electric field. ScienceNOW reports that electricity can give life to cellophane. When you put a very thin layer of gold on each side of cellophane, and that you apply electric current to the gold layers, one positive, one negative, the cellophane curved toward the positive side. If you switch the voltage fast enough, the cellophane starts to act as a wing. So it should be possible to use it to build lightweight flying robots carrying cameras, microphones or sensors for surveillance missions. Read more for additional references and pictures about this electroactive paper (EAPap)."

6 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. I'm angry by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So today on Slashdot we've got flying robots and cars that drive themselves, but nowhere do I see the flying car that Popular Mechanics has been telling us is only five years away for the last several decades.

  2. Speakers? by Poromenos1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Could this be used for speakers? Aren't there some speakers that use a membrane instead of the normal speaker cone?

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  3. Wingspans.. by Ergasiophobia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wouldn't the wingspans needed to support even a light payload with flapping wings be too large for the cellophane wing to even support it's own weight?

    1. Re:Wingspans.. by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Wouldn't the wingspans needed to support even a light payload with flapping wings be too large for the cellophane wing to even support it's own weight?

      Thats correct, though people may develop lightweight payloads as well. Here in Melbourne a bunch of peoople used to (and perhaps still do) fly model airplanes in the domed reading room of the state library. This is a really big room with still air. The planes are made of small amounts of balsa and a sheet made by dripping a plastic compound onto the surface of bath of water. They were powered by a rubber band.

      One of these planes would fly slowly to the roof over about five minutes and glide slowly to the floor. They flew at (I suppose 10 or 20 cm/s). One day I witnessed a disaster when the airconditioning got turned on by accident and the entire fleet got caught in a scale hurricane.

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  4. Re:Dune by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Already done. You can even build your own.

    http://www.ornithopter.org/

  5. Watch out for suicide fly bombers! by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they make them with nitrocellulose, then swarms of tiny exploding fly drones could be the new terror weapon. Don't say I didn't warn you!

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