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| Robo-bee: miniature robot perches like an insect |
Scientists have designed flying, insect-sized robots that can perch and launch from ceilings. The robots use something referred to as static adhesion, the same process by that statically-charged balloons continue walls. Perching allows the robots to conserve energy. The findings, reported in the journal Science, contribute to a decade-long Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory project called "RoboBee".
The robots in this study are programmed drones, each around the size of a ten pence coin.
Dr Mirko Kovac, director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory of Imperial faculty, London, who was not concerned during this study, told BBC News that similar robots were currently being trialled in environmental watching and disaster-relief efforts.
Equipped with sensors, swarms of these small, relatively low cost robots, Dr Kovac explained, could alert 1st responders to the most intense areas of forest fires or alternative natural disasters.
Energy-saving perch Moritz Graule, a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lead investigator on the project said: "Hovering microrobots run out of energy very quickly." Perching, he said, provides a solution thereto downside.
But mechanical perching tools, like birds' claws, are too cumbersome for such tiny robots. Detaching easily from a surface was another challenge; if perching was the solely goal, Mr Graule aforesaid, "we could have place a very little glue on high of the robot".
To solve these problems, the researchers designed a small, flat "landing patch" with an static charge which will be switched on and off. When switched on, the patch acquires a negative charge that creates it continue nearby, more completely charged surfaces.
You can expertise the same impact by "rubbing a balloon on your hair then protrusive it to a wall," explained principal investigator of the Harvard RoboBee project, Dr Robert Wood. And for the dismount, said Dr Wood, "[we] simply take away power to the patch".
What the team is most excited about although area unit the opportunities that such minuscule part components promise for alternative applications. For these robots, "nothing exists off the shelf," said Dr Wood. "We have to reinvent for these systems."
That reinvention opens up new frontiers for very small devices - from producing to micro-surgery.
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