Flying Robots Views

General Goods

The researchers don't mention possible applications for the Distributed Flight Array, but a glance at other IDSC projects such as the autonomously balancing cube shows the institute is open-minded enough to pursue whimsical, artistic endeavors when it comes to robots. Building a swarm of intelligent hunter-killer flying bots must be the farthest thing from their minds.

What are the societal benefits of your research? My research area is fairly applied. Our work on droplet breakup was funded by P&G, because they want to know how to concentrate detergents and still have the soap disperse uniformly. Our work on colloidal crystallization may have implications for growing thinner, more defect-free films. Our work on insect flight may inspire simple solutions to the control of flying robots. Our work on cartilage may help in determining how diseases such as osteoarthritis progress. In addition, I am helping to develop the next generation of scientists so that they can tackle the problems of tomorrow.

This makes sense. We humans have done such a bad job of building things in the past, that we need an army of flying robots to increase our building speed. Leta’s program the robots to keep it up until every inch of this continent is covered with concrete and steel. Then they can rest, because civilization will have reached its goal.

There is a long held belief among engineers and biologists that micro flying robots that fly like airplanes and helicopters consume much more energy than micro robots that fly like advanced insects such as flies. The previous thinking was that basic flapping wings at the small scale of insects waste less energy while generating lift. This idea, which has become integral to the development of fly-sized flying robots, now has been tested rigorously by a Dutch aerospace engineer, David Lentink at Wageningen University (Netherlands), who joined forces with a leading expert on insect flight, biologist Michael Dickinson at the California Institute of Caltech.