Robo-bee: miniature robot perches like an insect

[nitpicker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36313958

Robo-bee: miniature robot perches like an insect

By Nathan Tauger
Science reporter

2 hours ago

Scientists have designed flying, insect-sized robots that can perch and launch from ceilings. The robots use something called electrostatic adhesion, the same process by which statically-charged balloons stick to walls. Perching allows the robots to conserve energy.

The findings, reported in the journal Science, contribute to a decade-long Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory project called "RoboBee".
The robots in this study are programmed drones, each around the size of a 10 pence coin.

Dr Mirko Kovac, director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory of Imperial College, London, who was not involved in this study, told BBC News that similar robots were currently being trialled in environmental monitoring and disaster-relief efforts. Equipped with sensors, swarms of these small, relatively cheap robots, Dr Kovac explained, could alert first responders to the most intense areas of forest fires or other natural disasters.
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To solve these problems, the researchers designed a small, flat "landing patch" with an electrostatic charge that can be switched on and off. When switched on, the patch acquires a negative charge that makes it stick to nearby, more positively charged surfaces.

You can experience a similar effect by "rubbing a balloon on your hair then sticking it to a wall," explained principal investigator of the Harvard RoboBee project, Dr Robert Wood. And for the dismount, said Dr Wood, "[we] simply remove power to the patch".
(snip)

[highprincipleswork]

1. Great, now if they could only pollinate plants we'd have a better chance of surviving 50 years.