The first insect robot is in control

(Early morning), at a Harvard University robot lab last summer, an insect robot made a flight. It was about half the size of a paper clip, weighed less than a tenth of a gram, jumped a few inches, fluttered, flapped its wings, and then accelerated along a pre-set route in the air.

As a proud father watching his child take his first steps, graduate student Pakpong Chirarattananon immediately returned to the scene and sent an email video to his teachers and colleagues at 3 in the morning, with the subject line 'Flight of the RoboBee' (Flight of the RoboBee).

'I was very excited and could not sleep ,' recalls Chirarattananon, who is the main co-author of the paper published this week in Science.

The demonstration of the first controlled flight of a small insect-sized robot is the culmination of more than a decade of research, led by researchers at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science. (SEAS) and Technology Research Institute inspired by Wyss biology at Harvard.

'This is something I've tried to do for the past 12 years , ' said Robert J. Wood, another research author. 'It is really unique because of this lab's recent breakthroughs in manufacturing, materials, and design that we can try this. And it worked, it was spectacular. '

Inspired by the biological characteristics of flies, with anatomy of size mm and almost transparent, thin wings, flapping wings 120 times / s, this tiny device spurred innovation in the field. Research producing mini robots made by dozens of researchers at Harvard for many years.

'We had to develop solutions from scratch, for everything,' Wood explained.

'We will have an active component, but when we continue, 5 new issues may arise. It is a dynamic goal '.

Flying muscles are an example, not suitable for small sized robots like this one.

'Big robots can run on electric motors, but on this small scale you have to choose, and there is nothing for you to choose from , ' co-author Kevin Y.Ma, a graduate student at SEAS said.

These small robots flap their wings with piezoelectric actuators - ceramic arrays that open and shrink when there is an electric field. The thin plastic joints are located inside the carbon-fiber body and a sophisticated balance control system controls the rotor rotation in flapping wings, with each wing being independently controlled in real time.

On a small scale, small changes in air flow can also have a strong impact on the flight, and the control system must have a faster response to maintain stability.

Insect robots also take advantage of a technique developed by Wood's team in 2011. Sheets consisting of many laser cut materials will be layered and clamped together into a plate. Flat and thin. The quick, step-by-step process of replacing what used to be an art

Quickly, the step-by-step process of replacing what has been used is a meticulously crafted art and allows Wood's team to use stronger materials in new combinations, while improving accuracy. overall of each device.

'Now we can quickly build reliable prototypes, which allow us to be more positive when testing them,' Ma said, adding that the team tested 20 samples. only in the last 6 months.

Applications of the RoboBee project may include classification of environmental monitoring, search and rescue operations, or crop pollination assistance, but materials, manufacturing techniques, and export components. Even in the fabrication process may be even more important. For example, the production process may allow a new class of complex medical equipment. Harvard's Office of Technology Development cooperates with SEAS Harvard and the Wyss Institute, in the process of commercializing some of the basic technologies.

'Biological exploitation can solve the problems of reality is all about the Wyss Institute , ' said the founding director of the Wyss Institute, Don Ingber. 'This work is a beautiful example of how scientists and engineers from different disciplines carry out research inspired by nature and focus on movement that can lead to breakthroughs. Technical importance '.

'Now that we have this special platform, there are dozens of tests that we are starting to implement, including more active control exercises and landing too , ' said Wood.

After that, the next steps will involve merging the work of many research teams working with the brain part of the device, the orientation behavior, the energy source and so on until the tapered robots The coincide is completely automatic and requires no wires.

Currently, insect robot models are still tied with a very thin electric cable because there is currently no solution to store energy of a size small enough to mount on the robot's body. High-density energy fuel cells will have to be developed before Robobee can fly more independently.

The robot control still needs a wire from the computer itself, although a team led by SEAS Gu-Yeon Wei and David Brooks is working on an efficient brain that can be attached to the robot's frame. .

'Flies can perform the best acrobatic actions in nature using only their tiny brains , ' co-author Sawyer B. Fuller, a postdoctoral researcher in Wood's group. note. 'The ability of these insects to exceed what we can do with insect robots, so we want to study their biological properties more closely and apply to our research'.

The important milestone of this first controlled flight represents the assertion of ambitious dreams - especially for Wood, who went on to graduate school when setting this goal.

'This project creates a common incentive for scientists and engineers to create smaller batteries, design more efficient control systems and create stronger and lighter materials , ' says Wood.

"You may not expect all researchers, biologists, material scientists, electrical engineers to study together. But they will enjoy the problem of solving complex problems together. complex and difficult '.

'I want to create something unprecedented , ' Ma added. 'Excitement promotes the limits of what we can do, the limits of human ingenuity'.

This research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Biological Engineering at Harvard University.