Don't Reach for the Insect Spray—It's Just Robo-Fly

While some of their colleagues develop robotic cats and dogs, an electrical engineering team from the University of California at Berkeley chose a less obvious animal to emulate. Ron Fearing, Kristofer Pister, biologist Michael Dickinson, and their colleagues are building a robotic insect loosely based on the blowfly, a common pest. The robo-fly has a one-inch wingspan and weighs less than a hundredth of an ounce. Its wings are composed of rigid polymer. Thin strips of ceramic material connected to its thorax contract in response to electricity, pulling on the wings and causing them to twist and flap.