Tiny robots and spying machines are all the rage these days, it seems: just as some Dutch researchers announce that they've built a bird-like flying surveillance bot, engineers at Harvard say they have a fly-size gizmo that could herald a generation of miniscule machines.
The picture on the left - by lead researcher Robert Wood - shows how small we're talking, but the Technology Review gives some more detail:
Weighing only 60 milligrams, with a wingspan of three centimeters, the tiny robot's movements are modeled on those of a real fly. While much work remains to be done on the mechanical insect, the researchers say that such small flying machines could one day be used as spies, or for detecting harmful chemicals.
Students at the Delft University of Technology, meanwhile, have joined forces with zoologists to build an aircraft that is modelled closely on the swift. The idea is that it can follow flocks of the migrating birds and hide while surveilling the ground - and by copying the swift's wings can also prove highly efficient.
Morphing means the wings can be swept back in flight by folding feathers over each other, thus changing the wing shape and reducing the wing surface area. RoboSwift also steers by morphing its wings. Doing so, the micro airplane can perform optimally, flying efficiently and highly manoeuvrable at very high and very low speeds, just like the swift
The researchers say this is significantly better than other "swing wing" designs, which don't actually reduce the wing's surface area by that much - and therefore don't manage to boost efficiency by a huge percentage.
