Controlled Flight of a Biologically Inspired, Insect-Scale Robot

Kevin, Y.; Chirarattananon, Pakpong; Fuller, Sharon; Wood, Robert J.

doi:10.1126/science.1231806

Cited by 954 publications

(765 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…For example, nearly 90% of the power budget of the RoboBee (Fig. 2c) is dedicated to the primary power actuators that generate lift to stay in the air 13 . As already discussed, for power actuators, the typical choice is electromagnetic motors.…”

Section: Actuation Power and Manufacturingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones

Floreano

Wood

2015

Nature

Self Cite

1,087

552

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Drones, a popular nickname for unmanned aerial vehicles and micro aerial vehicles, often conjure up images of unmanned aeroplanes that fly thousands of miles for espionage and to deploy munitions. However, over the past few years, an increasing number of public and private research laboratories have been working on small, human-friendly drones that one day may autonomously fly in confined spaces and in close proximity to people. The development of these small drones, which is the main focus of this Review, has been supported by the miniaturization and cost reduction of electronic components (microprocessors, sensors, batteries and wireless communication units), largely driven by the portable electronic device industry. These improvements have enabled the prototyping and commercialization of small (typically less than 1 kg) drones at smartphone prices.Small drones will have important socio-economic impacts (Fig. 1). Images from drones that are capable of flying a few metres above the ground will fill a gap between expensive, weather-dependent and lowresolution images provided by satellites and car-based images limited to human-level perspectives and the availability of accessible roads. Specialized flying cameras and cloud-based data analytics will allow farmers to continuously monitor the quality of crop growth. Such platforms will enable construction companies to measure work progress in real time. Drones will let mining companies obtain precise volumetric data of excavations. Energy and infrastructure companies will be able to exhaustively survey pipelines, roads and cables. Humanitarian organizations could immediately assess and adapt aid efforts in continuously changing refugee camps. Transportation drones that are capable of safely taking off and landing in the proximity of buildings and humans will allow developing countries -without a suitable road network -to rapidly deliver goods and to finally unleash the full potential of their e-commerce telecommunication infrastructure. Transportation drones will also help developed countries to improve the quality of service in congested or remote areas, and will enable rescue organizations to quickly deliver medical supplies in the field and on demand. Inspection drones that are capable of flying in confined spaces will help fire-fighting and emergency units to assess dangers faster and more safely, logistic companies to detect cracks in the inner and outer shells of ships, road maintenance companies to measure signs of wear and tear in bridges and tunnels, security companies to improve building safety by monitoring areas outside the range of surveillance cameras, and disaster mitigation agencies to inspect partially collapsed buildings where ground clutter is an obstacle for terrestrial robots. Coordinated teams of autonomous drones will enable missions that last longer than the flight time of a single drone by allowing some drones to temporarily leave the team for battery replacement. Drone teams will permit rescue organizations to quickly deploy dedicated commu...

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Section: Actuation Power and Manufacturingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones

Floreano

Wood

2015

Nature

Self Cite

1,087

552

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“…This bio-inspired autopilot including both intersaccadic and saccadic systems is the first step toward designing a deft, lightweight, power-lean visuomotor control system that could be implemented on novel free-flying insectlike tiny robots [47] by extending the FOV to the ventral and dorsal parts [23,34]. In addition, the present simulated visual processing system meet the low requirements of the recent curved artificial compound eyes called CurvACE [48].…”

Section: Robotic Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetic Autopilot Based on Minimalistic Motion Vision for Navigating along Corridors Comprising U-shaped and S-shaped Turns

Serres

Ruffier

2015

J Bionic Eng

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Abstract.A bio-inspired autopilot is presented, in which body saccadic and intersaccadic systems are combined. This autopilot enables a simulated hovercraft to travel along corridors comprising L-junctions, U-shaped and Sshaped turns, relying on minimalistic motion vision cues alone without measuring its speed or distance from walls, in much the same way as flies and bees manage their flight in similar situations. The saccadic system responsible for avoiding frontal collisions triggers yaw body saccades with appropriately quantified angles based simply on a few local optic flow measurements, giving the angle of incidence with respect to a frontal wall. The simulated robot negotiates stiff bends by triggering body saccades to realign its trajectory, thus traveling parallel with the wall along a corridor comprising sharp turns. Direct comparison shows that the performance of this new body saccade-based autopilot closely resembles the behavior of a fly using similar body saccade strategy when flying along a corridor with an S-shaped turn, despite the huge differences in terms of the inertia.

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“…Communication with robots can be realized by signal lines or wireless channels. As the size of robots continues to decrease and even reaches the scale of micrometers, it will be a significance challenge to provide microrobots with extremely small energy storage devices with sufficient capacitance and physical wires or cumbersome components needed for wireless communication (Ma et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlled regular locomotion of algae cell microrobots

Xie

Jiao

Tung

et al. 2016

Biomed Microdevices

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Algae cells can be considered as microrobots from the perspective of engineering. These organisms not only have a strong reproductive ability but can also sense the environment, harvest energy from the surroundings, and swim very efficiently, accommodating all these functions in a body of size on the order of dozens of micrometers. An interesting topic with respect to random swimming motions of algae cells in a liquid is how to precisely control them as microrobots such that they swim according to manually set routes. This study developed an ingenious method to steer swimming cells based on the phototaxis. The method used a varying light signal to direct the motion of the cells. The swimming trajectory, speed, and force of algae cells were analyzed in detail. Then the algae cell could be controlled to swim back and forth, and traverse a crossroad as a microrobot obeying specific traffic rules. Furthermore, their motions along arbitrarily set trajectories such as zigzag, and triangle were realized successfully under optical control. Robotize algae cells can be used to precisely transport and deliver cargo such as drug particles in microfluidic chip for biomedical treatment and pharmacodynamic analysis. The study findings are expected to bring significant breakthrough in biological drives and new biomedical applications.

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Controlled Flight of a Biologically Inspired, Insect-Scale Robot

Cited by 954 publications

References 30 publications

Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones

Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones

Biomimetic Autopilot Based on Minimalistic Motion Vision for Navigating along Corridors Comprising U-shaped and S-shaped Turns

Controlled regular locomotion of algae cell microrobots

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