This is one flying insect you don’t want to swat. It doesn’t bite, sting or spread disease. In fact, someday it could be a life- and climate-saver. In time, it could even be used to survey crops, detect wildfires, poke around in disaster rubble searching for survivors and sniff out gas leaks, especially global warming-fueling methane, a powerful greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Introducing ….. RoboFly!
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| The RoboFly! |
It’s the first robotic flying insect that lifts off without being tethered to a power source on the ground, unlike other flying robotics. It weighs just a bit more than a toothpick and takes off using tiny beating wings — not propellers, as drones do — driven by a laser beam. A miniscule onboard circuit turns the laser energy into electricity, which causes its wings to flap.
Read the NexusMedia story by Marlene Cimons - “Meet RoboFly, the Mechanical Insect That Could Fly Climate-Saving Missions.”
