The RoboBee, the brainchild of engineers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), is a tiny insect smaller than a paperclip that has been able to fly for quite a few time.
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The way it flies is similar to a bee, but to ensure it could swim in water as well, it took inspiration from the Puffin.
Normally, these types of transport are considered extremely hard to combine, since they require different mechanisms. The RoboBee is so small and lightweight that it can not break the surface tension of the water. Researchers found that during flying as well as swimming, the wing is moving back and forth, but the only difference was the speed of flapping. If RoboBee didn’t adjust the flapping speed, because of the increased density of water, its wings would just snap.
“What is really exciting about this research is that our analysis of flapping-wing locomotion is not limited to insect-scaled vehicles”, said Chen. In order to solve this, the team behind RoboBee designed the microrobot such that it hovers over the water at an angle, momentarily switches off its wings, and crashes unceremoniously into the water in order to sink.
Similarly, they can’t leave water without their wings breaking apart.
In order to make the transition from air to water, the team first had to solve the problem of surface tension.
To move through the air, the robot needs to be able to generate vertical lift stronger than the downward pull of gravity.
Moreover, the speed of its incredibly fragile and delicate wings varies according to the environment in which it has to move. But at nine flaps per second, the wings make a smooth, paddling motion that propels RoboBee gently through water.
On the other hand, when the RoboBee has to cross distances while being covered by water, the velocity is reduced to a mere 9 beats per second, so as to account for the fact that this medium is around 1,000 times denser.
Researchers at the Harvard Paulson School have demonstrated a flying, swimming, insectlike robot, easing the way to create future aerial-aquatic robotic vehicles.
Lidar (short for light detection and ranging) works like radar, only it emits invisible laser beams instead of microwaves.
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As researchers explain, the technology is actually similar to that employed when manufacturing autonomous vehicles, but it will be reduced to a miniature scale, resulting in a micro-lidar. The largest challenge has been a serious conflict in design requirements: aerial vehicles require large airfoils such as wings or a sail, while underwater vehicles need to minimize their surface area to reduce drag.
