Tiny flying Robot

Have you ever been annoyed by a house fly flying through your house, landing on your food? Well researchers at Harvard have studied the movement of flies and has created a tiny robot to simulate this movement. The robot  weighs a miniscule 80mg and flaps its wings at a rate of 120 times per second, it is able to hover in the air for up to 20 seconds. The researchers made the wings with piezoelectric material, which contracts when a small electrical charge is passed through it.

For now, the robots have to be tethered to thin copper wires that provide electric power and navigation information, but the researchers hope that a battery will one day be lightweight enough to be attached to the robot itself. The team suggests the robots could be used for search-and-rescue operations, monitoring environmental damage, tracing chemicals or pollinating crops, while their discreet size could also make them suitable for military surveillance. A pretty cool robot if you ask me. Please see video below as well.