This 'Robo-bee' can land on ceilings, perch on precarious objects and help out in search and rescue missions.
The tiny robot, developed by team at Harvard University, is "inspired by the biology of a bee and the insect's hive behaviour". "We aim to push advances in miniature robotics and the design of compact high-energy power sources, spur innovations in ultra-low-power computing and electronic smart sensors and refine coordination algorithms to manage independent machines," the team wrote on the project's website.
Robots such as the Robo-bee have a number of uses – pollinating a field of crops, for example, or in search and rescue missions. Because of its tiny size and ability to land and perch on ceilings and walls, it could potentially be used for reconnaissance missions during natural disasters, as well as "hazardous environment exploration", military surveillance or climate mapping.
Similar robots have been created elsewhere – most notably the robot cockroaches developed at the University of California at Berkeley – but the Harvard team said that by modelling a robot's "physical and behavioural robustness" on insects, they could carry out complex tasks "faster, more reliably and more efficiently".
Bee colonies are also intelligent, something the team hopes to replicate, and have a complex nervous system that can "deftly sense and adapt to changing environments".
The robot perches on ceilings and walls using "electrostatic adhesion" – the same kind of energy that makes a "static sock stick to a pants leg or a balloon to the wall". "In the case of the balloon, however, the charges dissipate over time, and the balloon will eventually fall down," said Moritz Graule, who worked on the system. "In our system, a small amount of energy is constantly supplied to maintain the attraction."
The structure is also incredibly light – around 100mg, the same weight as a real bee.
The team will now work on improving their model by changing the mechanical design so the robot can "perch on any surface", not just ceilings. "There are more challenges to making a robust, robotic landing system but this experimental result demonstrates a very versatile solution to the problem of keeping flying microrobots operating longer without quickly draining power," said Graule.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
