This RoboBee Takes No Damage When Crashing Into Walls

The ability to fly of tiny robots has existed for a long time, but actually they can be damaged during transportation. To minimize this potential risk, researchers from Harvard have developed a new robot called RoboBee using soft and artificial muscles. RoboBees can now fly without having damages on their parts. They can even hit the walls, collide with their fellow 'bees’ with no hurts and hit the ground. Although being known a long time before, it was not until now that soft muscles become popular in supporting tiny robots to fly with high density and easy control. 

The key to the new development is the enhancement of power density thanks to refined materials. Researchers have taken advantage of dielectric elastomers that can deform under electric fields as well as have qualified insulating properties to create actuators. They have also upgraded the electrode conductivity so that the robots can function as perfectly as other actuators with a frequency of 500Hz. Another advantage of RoboBees is that they can be easily assembled and replaced with more wings as well as actuators to support the handling of more challenging tasks. A typical RoboBee will have eight wings and four actuators for controlled flight. 

Here's how they work:

In theory, the technology that researchers are working on is assumed to be effective, but they may seem less as compared to existing robots in practice. The ultimate target of the researchers is to develop technology and sell these robotic products. Imagine the excellent contribution these robots can make to complex tasks, such as rescuing or searching for missing people, it is clear that robots will play a key role in finding survivors while navigating dangerous areas where humans cannot enter.