Flying Robots Made From Cellophane?

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)."

Comments

mo'd dnown

[Anonymous Coward]

Can coonEct to

A chapter from my book seems appropriate.

[gilberry]

Amazingly I wrote a whole book about movies and politics but from the perspective of us gone wrong. Yeah, people like us as hardcore street racers. This iblurb is from something we should all remember, the University of Florida creating a model airplane wing that can alter its shape in flight...I'm not asking you to buy the book. Hell, if this [not just a googlepage, MY damn googlepage] seems interesting to you (apparently this is unlikely), I will send you the .pdf. Anyway...

27 August 2005
Dr. Lind: Fascist Punch in the Balls

        So I was reading the BBC site's science section today, and this guy at UF invented a new kind of remote control plane that can change the shape of its wings like seagulls so it can fly in all kinds of situations like in cities or whatever. Well the government is sponsoring the program, so it's not like this thing will be at the hobby store anytime soon. I don't even know why the BBC, normally a bunch of hip cats, put this in the science section. The creators were talking about how they had x space and y weight for payloads or cargo, or whatever. "A mission payload would include a mission camera, chemical sensors, and potentially, acoustic sensors for listening outside apartment windows, for example," said Dr. Lind.
        So what the fuck times two, Dr. Lind. Are you like some sort of drunk Nazi poker player tipping your hand? Are we, meaning me, supposed to be your conscience? Here's a hint, Lind. If you need the president of a Ford Focus street racing gang to be the angel on your shoulder, debating the DARPA devil, then we're all well and truly fucked.
        So when you get spied on by your own fucking toy, remember we didn't tell you so. You told yourself so, dumb shit. Now go clone some dinosaurs, fuckwad. You ought to make a plane that shoots me with a tranquilizer before I slug you right in the gut, you ass.
        And the other what the fuck: Why just apartments? 'Only renters are dissenters,' Lind? Fuck man, when I come up with 1984/Brave New World rhymes that fucking easily we're over the sanity horizon.
        So how does all this relate to the ***CAUTION SPOILERS***? Well Tommy and Dawson were mixing it up on the Sawgrass last night, and Tommy popped off a Roman candle at some minivan people who were prolly just going home to see if they had electricity yet, just so they would cut off Dawson. Well that violates one of our core credos, and about thirteen of our sub-credos about making sure the squares don't catch fire and die and shit. I don't even know what to do about this. Tommy is cool and all, and definitely fun at parties, but if the fucking cops come to the Beach House today, I will go so fucking ballistic. Fuck, Tricky wants him out right now, because his parents are minivan people, and he's got a sister and all. But if I was Tricky, I'd be more worried about Dawson fucking my sister than Tommy putting a dozen bottle rockets through the window of their Villager.
        You know I started writing this when I got bored, then things got fun, but now the hurricane, which is fucking New Orleans up in a serious biblical way, and Tommy going completely non-linear, it's getting all serious. I gotta sort this shit out. I hate sorting shit out. Fuck man, it's a minivan, not an opportunity. We aren't some fucking Neitschze car club. No Roarkes, no Freidrichs. I shouldn't have to spell this shit out.

Re:Whaddya expect from Roland Piquepaille?

[Frosty Piss]

Interestingly, like Roland's web site content, content at Slashdot drives up Slashdot's page hits, too. Amazing how that works, you put something on a web page so people can see it...