Free Republic

Scientists in the US have created a robot the size of a fly that is able to perform the agile manoeuvres of the ubiquitous insects. This "robo-fly", built from carbon fibre, weighs a fraction of a gram and has super-fast electronic "muscles" to power its wings. Its Harvard University developers say tiny robots like theirs may eventually be used in rescue operations. The current model of robo-fly is tethered to a small, off-board power source but Dr Ma says the next step will be to miniaturise the other bits of technology that will be needed to create a "fully wireless...

American troops in Iraq have demanding smaller and more dependable micro-UAVs. The latest one developed for that purpose is the TACMAV. This is a 12 ounce UAV, which carries two color cameras for battery powered flights lasting 30-40 minutes. A complete system weighs 12.4 pounds and include two UAVs, stored (with their bended plastic wings) in a 5x22 inch tube. A TACMAV can be launched within minutes. The operators pulls a UAV out of its tube, turns it on, fires up the five pound laptop computer used to control the UAV, sets up the antenna, makes sure that the control...

At the recent biennial 2003 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Seiko Epson Corp unveiled the world's lightest and smallest UAV helicopter, the Micro Flying Robot, which Seiko said it plans to be the vehicle for an equally small flying camera. Surprisingly, the machine looks a bit like a scaled-down version of DeVinci's unrealized 16th century plans for a helicopter. The manufacturer built the device so that it could fly into dangerous areas or areas hit by disasters in place of human beings and see what the situation is. Another example would be for the micro-UAV to fly into a building...