University of California, BerkeleyEngineers at the campus have developed a new flying robot inspired by insects that can hover, change direction and attack small targets like a bumblebee flying among flowers. With a diameter of less than 1 centimeter and a weight of only 21 milligrams, it is the world's smallest controllable flying wireless robot.
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created a new flying robot inspired by insects that can hover, change trajectory and even hit small targets. The flying robot is less than 1 centimeter in diameter and equipped with two tiny magnets. Applying an external magnetic field causes the robot to rotate, creating enough lift to help the robot fly. Photo credit: Adam Lau/University of California, Berkeley
Less than a centimeter wide, the bumblebee-inspired robot can hover, change direction and hit small targets.
Lin Liwei, Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, said: "Bees have demonstrated extraordinary aeronautical capabilities, such as navigation, hovering and pollination, which artificial flying robots of similar scale cannot achieve. This flying robot can approach and hit designated targets through wireless control, simulating the pollination mechanism of bees collecting nectar and flying away."
Lin is the senior author of a new paper about the robot, published online Friday, March 28, in the journal Science Advances.
For a robot to fly, it usually requires power sources such as batteries and electronic devices to control its movement. However, packing these components into a tiny, lightweight device is a significant challenge. To solve this problem, Lin and the UC Berkeley team used external magnetic fields to power the robot and guide its flight path.
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created a new flying robot inspired by insects that can hover, change trajectory and even hit small targets. The robot is designed to mimic the flight behavior of insects such as bumblebees. Photo credit: Adam Lau/University of California, Berkeley
The robot is shaped like a small propeller and contains two small magnets. Under the influence of an external magnetic field, these magnets attract and repel each other, driving the propellers to rotate and generating enough lift to lift the robot off the ground. By adjusting the magnetic field strength, the robot's flight path can be precisely controlled.
The next largest robot with similar flight capabilities was 2.8 centimeters in diameter, nearly three times the size of the new flying robot.
Small scale, big possibilities
"Miniature flying robots are very useful for exploring small cavities and other complex environments," said Fanping Sui, co-first author of the study and who recently earned his PhD in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. “This could be used for hand pollination or inspecting small spaces such as the inside of pipes.”
Currently, the robot can only fly passively. This means that, unlike airplanes or more advanced drones, it has no onboard sensors to detect its current position or trajectory, nor can it adjust its movements in real time. So while a robot can accurately determine its flight path, sudden changes in the environment, such as strong winds, can cause it to veer off course.
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created a new flying robot inspired by insects that can hover, change trajectory and even hit small targets. UC Berkeley graduate student Yue Wei (left) and engineering professor Lin Liwei each hold a robot. Photo credit: Adam Lau/University of California, Berkeley
"In the future, we will try to add active control, which will allow us to change the attitude and position of the robot in real time," said Yue Wei, co-first author of the study and a graduate student in Lin Liwei's lab.
Operating the robot also requires strong magnetic fields provided by electromagnetic field coils. However, if you shrink the robot further to less than 1 millimeter in diameter (about the size of a mosquito), you can make it light enough to be controlled by weaker magnetic fields, such as those provided by radio waves.
In addition to the new bumblebee-inspired robot, Lin's team also created a cockroach-inspired robot that can move quickly across the floor and survive even being stepped on by humans. Yue is developing new "swarm" robots that can work together like ants to complete tasks that a single robot cannot complete alone.
"I'm working on 5mm-scale robots that can crawl, roll and rotate, and they can also work together to form chains and arrays, or complete more difficult tasks," Yue said. "They could potentially be used in minimally invasive surgeries because we could inject multiple robots into the body and have them work together to form stents, ablate blood clots or perform other tasks."
Compiled from /ScitechDaily