Insect-Sized Flying Robots With Flapping Wings – New Achievement Of Bristol Scientists
Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – A new drive system for flapping wing autonomous robots has been developed by a University of Bristol team, using a new method of electromechanical zipping that does away with the need for conventional motors and gears.
Front view of the flying robot. Image credit: Dr. Tim Helps
This new advance, published today in the journal Science Robotics, could pave the way for smaller, lighter, and more effective micro flying robots for environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and deployment in hazardous environments.
Until now, typical micro flying robots have used motors, gears, and other complex transmission systems to achieve the up-and-down motion of the wings. This has added complexity, weight, and undesired dynamic effects.
Taking inspiration from bees and other flying insects, researchers from Bristol’s Faculty of Engineering, led by Professor of Robotics Jonathan Rossiter, have successfully demonstrated a direct-drive artificial muscle system, called the Liquid-amplified Zipping Actuator (LAZA), that achieves wing motion using no rotating parts or gears.
The LAZA system greatly simplifies the flapping mechanism, enabling future miniaturization of flapping robots down to the size of insects.
They also demonstrated how the LAZA can deliver consistent flapping over more than one million cycles, important for making flapping robots that can undertake long-haul flights.
The team expects the LAZA to be adopted as a fundamental building block for a range of autonomous insect-like flying robots.
Dr. Tim Helps, lead author and developer of the LAZA system said: “With the LAZA, we apply electrostatic forces directly on the wing, rather than through a complex, inefficient transmission system.
This leads to better performance, simpler design, and will unlock a new class of low-cost, lightweight flapping micro-air vehicles for future applications, like autonomous inspection of offshore wind turbines.”
Professor Rossiter added: “Making smaller and better performing flapping-wing microrobots is a huge challenge.
LAZA is an important step toward autonomous flying robots that could be as small as insects and perform environmentally critical tasks such as plant pollination and exciting emerging roles such as finding people in collapsed buildings.”
Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff
Related Posts
-
Possible Step Toward Cheaper Hydrogen-Based Energy: Predicting Performance Of Catalysts In Fuel Cells
No Comments | Jul 26, 2022
-
Developing Fabrics That Change Shape When They Heat Up
No Comments | Feb 23, 2023
-
Driving On Sunshine: Clean, Usable Liquid Fuels Made From Solar Power
No Comments | May 20, 2023
-
Artificial Intelligence Predicts Algae Potential As Alternative Energy Source
No Comments | Mar 6, 2022
-
Extremely Bright Artificial Moon Will Replace Streetlights In China
No Comments | Oct 29, 2018
-
Researchers Achieve World’s First International Holographic Teleportation
No Comments | Aug 16, 2022
-
Credit Card-Sized Device Focuses Terahertz Energy To Generate High-Resolution Images
No Comments | Feb 22, 2022
-
New Holographic Camera Sees The Unseen With High Precision
No Comments | Nov 17, 2021
-
Paper Is Bending, Folding And Flattening Itself Due to A New Innovative, Low-Cost Technology
No Comments | Aug 25, 2018
-
‘Night-Time Solar’ Technology Can Now Deliver Power In The Dark
No Comments | May 18, 2022