Fly on the wall is all set to acquire a literal meaning. Harvard University’s ‘robotic fly’ has made its debut flight and sooner rather than later, it will be employed for what it has been presumably developed i.e. spying. Do not be alarmed as it is still some years in the making. Brainchild of Robert Wood, assistant professor of engineering and applied sciences, the robotic fly has taken more than a decade to invent.
The mimic of the real thing, robotic fly weighs a mere 60mg and has a wingspan of 3 centimeters. And it is not all inspiration; Wood’s system that powers the wings produces 5 times more power density (a measure of power output as a function of mass) than the real thing.
Check out the video of this creature’s debut flight.
Buoyed by the success, Robert is pondering on adding an on-board power source to the fly. Currently, the power is transmitted via very thin wiring from high-voltage amplifiers. Wood is also working on robots that inspire from other beings like a fish, a cockroach or even a hummingbird. As to the potential applications of robotic fly, the Harvard scientist has this to say,
We want a human operator to be able to take out his batch of flies and say, ‘I want you guys to search for carbon dioxide’-a survivor breathing in a collapsed building.
Still spying seems to be the most obvious purpose of this insectoid, given the fact that DARPA is financing the project. You’ll do well to scrutinize carefully the buzz that you hear in a couple of year’s time. The new species promises to be more secretive than its natural counterpart.
