privacy is a joke. Don't give me this 'live saving' BS. This is purely meant to go under doors or through screens and spy on people. That statement shouldn't even sound paranoid any more.
Posted on 03/04/2021 9:07:44 AM PST by BenLurkin
The reason it's so hard to kill a mosquito is that they move really well.
Scientists are trying to build a robot with that kind of agility. And these tiny but mighty flying robots could be used in life-and-death situations, such as finding people in a collapsed building.
Kevin Chen says he spends "a lot of time looking at the flapping-wing physics, that is understanding how an insect can flap their wings and generate lift and drag forces."
Chen, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, leads a team that's invented a new microdrone — not quite as tiny as a mosquito.
"The weight of this robot and the physical size looks pretty much like a dragonfly," he says.
The tiny drone weighs just 0.6 grams (or 0.02 ounces) — about as much as a paper clip. But like a dragonfly, it's resilient.
It has a soft, muscular mechanism called an "actuator" that powers the wings for flight, that can flap nearly 500 times per second.
Previously, tiny robots used rigid actuators built from ceramic materials. "The robot will crash and land," Chen says. "Or it may run into a ceiling or it can run into a wall. The rigid robots have a very hard time dealing with those collisions."
But the new version uses actuators made of thin rubber cylinders coated in carbon nanotubes. When voltage is applied to the nanotubes, an MIT news release explains, "they produce an electrostatic force that squeezes and elongates the rubber cylinder. Repeated elongation and contraction causes the drone's wings to beat — fast."
Chen says that "because our soft power robot is very robust, of course, we can do interesting maneuvers, such as doing a somersault, we can survive collisions, et cetera."
He envisions a time when his drone could be used as a search and rescue robot — to find survivors in disaster debris that bigger drones couldn't reach. For example, in a building collapse with people trapped inside.
"How do we do a search and rescue task to figure where are the people being trapped under the building?" Chen says.
Enter the insect-sized drone.
"Hopefully they can see the person now who was trapped inside and then collectively send the information back. So we have a good idea about where the person is trapped," Chen says.
But the drones could have other potential uses. Chen sees them artificially pollinating crops or carrying small cameras to inspect turbine engines. Big jobs, with tiny mechanical workers to carry them out.
Now equip them with injectors for bio weapons and poisons.
I don’t really like where this is going.
“Don’t Swat This Bug. It Might Be A Robot On A Rescue Mission”
OK. Yeah. I’m squashing it.
Get one of those tennis racket bug zappers.
Should work for these things.
This will be useful to catch domestic terrorists reading Dr. Seuss and other subversive material.
Wouldn’t it have been great if we had such a “fly on the wall” at Democrat headquarters catching them in the many acts of treason and deception that they’ve committed, including their phony “Trump-Russia collusion” BS. I’d love to know for certain who else was in on it.
Does its energy souce need oxygen? I want to know if I need to poke air holes in the jar lid when I catch it.
Portable EMP units. One can use the magnetron from an old Microwave oven...
I love mine.
There is nothing that mankind won't use for evil.
These sound like they could be turned into Apollyon's beasties from Revelation.
Those aren’t wires. Those are ropes to hold it down due to it pining for the fjords. Had they made it look more like a parrot, they would have had to nail it to the perch.
You can also clearly see it runs on wind power from the way the blades are spinning around generating all the power.
F NPR.
People should pay for their own radio.
Alexaitto.
They also have cockroach cyborgs that have been equipped with cameras and can be “controlled” to move when the master wants them to go.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.