UC Berkeley scientists made the tiniest flying robot and it’s lighter than a grain of rice

Engineers at UC Berkeley have created the world’s smallest wireless flying robot, which was inspired by bumblebees.

The teeny tiny robot is less than 1cm in diameter and weighs just 21 milligrams, making it the smallest wireless robot capable of controlled flight in the whole world. 

The next largest similar robot is  2.8cm – almost three times the size of this little fella. 

The super-small robot is around the same size as a ladybug, but it was actually inspired by bumblebees and their ‘remarkable aeronautical abilities’.

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The world of robotics has come a long way in recent years.

That’s thanks to major players like Tesla, with its line of autonomous Optimus bots, and Amazon, which recently built tactile-touch robots that can ‘feel’ what they’re grabbing. 

Over at UC Berkeley, scientists have been working on this super-small flying robot shaped like a propeller, which is able to mimic the way bees fly. 

Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley Liwei Lin said:

“Bees exhibit remarkable aeronautical abilities, such as navigation, hovering, and pollination, that artificial flying robots of similar scale fail to do.

“This flying robot can be wirelessly controlled to approach and hit a designated target, mimicking the mechanism of pollination as a bee collects nectar and flies away.”

To fly, a robot requires a power source, like a battery, and electronics that enable flight control. But traditional options would be too big for this little bot.

So the engineers used an external magnetic field to both power it and control the flight path. 

The robot has two small magnets attached that are attracted and repelled by the external magnetic field. And that’s what makes the propeller spin. 

The propeller-shaped bot is able to generate enough lift to get off the ground. And once in the air, its flight path can be controlled by changing the strength of the external magnetic field. 

Clever idea, right?

Super-small flying robots, such as this one, aren’t just impressive feats of technology; they also serve a practical purpose and can be used to get into impossible-to-reach spots. 

“Tiny flying robots are useful for exploring small cavities and other complicated environments,” said study co-first author Fanping Sui. 

“This could be used for artificial pollination or inspecting small spaces, like the inside of a pipe.”

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