A robot weighing 1.8 grams and resembling a dragonfly has successfully taken off

2024-01-25

During World War I, prototypes of drones had already emerged, but at that time they could only be used as target planes. With the development of technology, various types of drones have emerged one after another.

Recently, researchers from Toyota Central R&D Laboratory have invented an aerial robot resembling a dragonfly.

It is understood that this aerial robot weighs only 1.8 grams and is about the size of a dragonfly. It will have multiple uses in communication, environmental sensing, and measuring enclosed spaces.

However, due to its small size and weight, the energy source problem is difficult to solve, resulting in a flight time of less than 10 minutes. In order to improve the operating time, researchers have used a new type of wireless radio frequency power supply as the power source, with a power to weight ratio of 4900W per kilogram, which is significantly higher than lithium polymer batteries of the same mass.

In addition, they also optimized the circuit design of the robot to ensure that the components that generate heat are not tightly adjacent or close to each other.

To evaluate the effectiveness of this "dragonfly" style aerial robot design, researchers conducted a series of experiments in which the aerial robot successfully demonstrated takeoff.

The next step of researchers is to combine power supply technology with attitude control to make robots suspended and move freely in the air. If successful, it will be of great help to humans when performing complex tasks that require entering cracks, pipelines, or other highly enclosed spaces.

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