Insects have long been an inspiration for robots. The insect world is full of things that are tiny, fully autonomous, highly mobile, energy efficient, multimodal, self-repairing, and I could go on and on but you get the idea—insects are both an inspiration and a source of frustration to roboticists because it’s so hard to get robots to have anywhere close to insect capability. We’re definitely making progress, though. In a paper published last month in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, roboticists from Shanghai Jong Tong University demonstrated the most buglike robotic bug I think I’ve ever seen. A Multi-Modal Tailless Flapping-Wing Robot www.youtube.com Okay so it may not look the most buglike, but it can do many very buggy bug things, including crawling, taking off horizontally, flying around (with six degrees of freedom control), hovering, landing, and self-righting if necessary. JT-fly weighs about 35 grams and has a wingspan of Continuer la lecture Here’s the Most Buglike Robot Bug Yet→

Insects have long been an inspiration for robots. The insect world is full of things that are tiny, fully autonomous, highly mobile, energy efficient, multimodal, self-repairing, and I could go on and on but you get the idea—insects are both an inspiration and a source of frustration to roboticists because it’s so hard to get robots to have anywhere close to insect capability. We’re definitely making progress, though. In a paper published last month in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, roboticists from Shanghai Jong Tong University demonstrated the most bug-like robotic bug I think I’ve ever seen. A Multi-Modal Tailless Flapping-Wing Robot www.youtube.com Okay so it may not look the most bug-like, but it can do many very buggy bug things, including crawling, taking off horizontally, flying around (with six degrees of freedom control), hovering, landing, and self-righting if necessary. JT-fly weighs about 35 grams and has a wingspan of Continuer la lecture Here’s the Most Bug-Like Robot Bug Yet→