Thanks to lasers, this little robot finally lost its umbilical cord. (Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington) We've seen robot insects fly, land and even swim. But they weren't doing that all by themselves. Until now, a tether of wires held them back. A group of researchers from the University of Washington made the first wirelessly powered robotic insect. The bot, called RoboFly, weighs just 190 mg — it's barely heavier than a toothpick and just slightlylarger than a real fly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DXuxGErs9k
The idea for these bioinspired robots was first proposed in 1989 by Rodney Brooks and Anita Flynn of MIT. Work on actually making them began in the early 2000s with the Berkeley Micro Robotic Fly project. Since then the robots have progressed, but not enough to cut their umbilical cord. Their small size proved to be a major challenge, as wireless flight requires on-board components and processing. To make ...
