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Researchers Create First Flying Wireless Robotic Insect (newatlas.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: You might remember RoboBee, an insect-sized robot that flies by flapping its wings. Unfortunately, though, it has to be hard-wired to a power source. Well, one of RoboBee's creators has now helped develop RoboFly, which flies without a tether. Slightly heavier than a toothpick, RoboFly was designed by a team at the University of Washington -- one member of that team, assistant professor Sawyer Fuller, was also part of the Harvard University team that first created RoboBee. That flying robot receives its power via a wire attached to an external power source, as an onboard battery would simply be too heavy to allow the tiny craft to fly. Instead of a wire or a battery, RoboFly is powered by a laser. That laser shines on a photovoltaic cell, which is mounted on top of the robot. On its own, that cell converts the laser light to just seven volts of electricity, so a built-in circuit boosts that to the 240 volts needed to flap the wings. That circuit also contains a microcontroller, which tells the robot when and how to flap its wings -- on RoboBee, that sort of "thinking" is handled via a tether-linked external controller. The robot can be seen in action here.
Er...look, I want to credit the development team for making some tremendous strides in miniaturization but - that's not flying.
Fluttering wings hard enough to momentarily leave the ground is impressive, yes. But don't spoil it by trying to call it flying.
-Styopa
Not to poo-poo their work, but this is definitely not a first. A quick google search reveals several:
https://gizmodo.com/its-almost...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/auto...
https://www.ted.com/talks/a_ro...
I also remember a DARPA project to create a flying insect with a camera, that was powered entirely by ambient wi-fi. It would fly a bit, then spend hours charging, then fly a bit more.
Sorry but the electronic engineer in me wonders how much POWER this arrangement creates and that requires we know the current... Knowing how many volts is like knowing how tall a building is you need to put a weight on top of, but not how heavy the weight is.
Then the whole, we convert it to 240 volts to flap the wings, part is amusing too. How is this technical detail relevant to the coolness of what you accomplished? It's not hard to push 7V to 240V as there are off the shelf devices that do this with quite high power efficiencies... But there I go again with that power thing..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Actually, my thought was "why not a cyborg fly?" Implant circuits in an actual fly that would control its movements. They've already done computer controlled cockroaches.
Powering this thing by laser isn't really that different than powering it with a wire. Biological flies are efficient enough for sustained autonomous flight, and come in even tinier packages.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Combine one of these with the ability to squirt a few drops of nerve agent.....
... evolution did this long ago.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
a robot that would detect methane leaks
Robots following my ass around. Do Not Want.
Have gnu, will travel.