"Designer: Massachusetts Institute of Technology The robotic bee weighs even less than the weight of a paperclip. A standard-sized metal paperclip weighs about 1g, for perspective; the bee weighs even less. But that does not impede its ability; in fact, it is idealized to be that small. The bee, despite its size, can flap its wings up to 400 times in a second. This flap speed allows it to achieve a maximum speed of two meters per second (i.e., 6.5 feet per second)."
"According to a fourth-year PhD student, Yi-Hsuan "Nemo" Hsiao, who is working on the bee robot, "We're just trying to mimic these amazing maneuvers that bumblebees can achieve." The idea may seem otherwise, but associate professor at MIT's robotic lab, Kevin Chen, says that the idea of creating the robotic bee is not to replace bees in our environment but to have a bee-mimicking robot that can work in scenarios and emergency conditions where even the mechanical insect cannot. While it flaps its wings using soft muscles that contract and elongate, the bee can also flip and hover."
MIT created a bee-like robot currently under development to join a fleet of robots that can crawl, fly, and hop across terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments. The robotic bee weighs less than a standard metal paperclip and is idealized to be that small to access confined spaces and reduce energetic costs. The device flaps its wings up to 400 times per second, producing a maximum speed of two meters per second. The design uses soft actuators that contract and elongate to drive wing motion, enabling flips and sustained hovering. The robot is intended for scenarios and emergency conditions inaccessible to humans and biological bees, not as a replacement for pollinators.
Read at Yanko Design - Modern Industrial Design News
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