World's smallest untethered flying robot is just under one centimeter tall
UC Berkeley's flying robot has two unusual features: it is probably the smallest in the world and is powered and controlled by a magnetic field.
(Image: UC Berkeley)
Scientists at the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) have developed what is probably the world's smallest untethered flying robot with a diameter of just 9.4 mm. It flies without any power source and is magnetically driven and controlled.
The model for what is probably the world's smallest flying robot – the next largest has a diameter of 2.8 cm – is once again nature. The researchers had the idea of developing a flying robot that resembles a bumblebee so that it could be used to artificially pollinate crops. To anticipate: The researchers have not yet achieved this goal. This is because the flying robot can only fly within an external variable and strong magnetic field, as the scientists write in the study "Untethered subcentimeter flying robots", which was published in Science Advances.
Control via an external magnetic field
The flying robot measures just 9.4 mm in diameter and weighs only 21 mg. It was printed out of a lightweight polymer using a 3D printer. In principle, it consists of a single four-bladed horizontal rotor held in place by a surrounding ring. In the center of the propeller is a vertical ring containing two small round neodymium permanent magnets, each 1 mm in diameter and 0.5 mm thick.
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The robot's flight area is an alternating electromagnetic field. The flying robot is rotated and controlled by it. In the air, the balancing ring ensures rotational inertia. The robot thus benefits from a stability-enhancing gyroscopic effect.
The flight altitude is controlled by the strength of the magnetic field, which increases or decreases the rotational speed and influences the lift. The researchers determine the robot's flight path via the strength of the magnetic field in a horizontal direction. The robot can thus fly forwards, backwards and sideways. Together with the height regulation, it moves freely in the space of the magnetic field.
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Due to its compact dimensions, the robot itself has no electronics for control and therefore has no sensors on board to determine its position in space and flight position. Accordingly, it cannot react to any gusts of wind that could throw it off course.
In a next step, the researchers intend to equip the flying robot with sensors to make it insensitive to external disturbances. The scientists at UC Berkeley want to further miniaturize the flying robot so that it can later move outside an artificially generated magnetic field. They plan to make it less than 1 mm in diameter – with a correspondingly low weight. It could then be driven and controlled by a much smaller magnetic field. The scientists are thinking here of radio waves. Such flying robots could then move around in areas that are specifically exposed to radio waves and perform various tasks such as pollination or exploration.
(olb)
