Everyone’s Buzzing About the New Insect-Size Drone
Great news for architects, builders and engineers!
Researchers have developed an insect-size drone with soft actuators -- akin to muscles -- that are agile and resilient to collisions.
The advance could boost aerial robots' repertoire, allowing them to operate in cramped spaces and withstand collisions.
The team engineered actuators which can flap nearly 500 times per second, giving the drone insect-like resilience. “You can hit it when it’s flying, and it can recover,” says MIT Assistant Professor Kevin Yufeng Chen. “It can also do aggressive manoeuvres like somersaults in the air.” And it weighs in at just 0.6 grams, approximately the mass of a large bumble bee. The drone looks a bit like a tiny cassette tape with wings, though Chen is working on a new prototype shaped like a dragonfly.
Reporter Ian Barnes from newcivilengineer.com states the use of drones has particularly increased in the construction industry to help businesses improve accuracy and productivity. Additionally, as purchase and set up costs gradually decrease to make the technology more affordable, more construction and civil engineering businesses can benefit from the technology.
There are several benefits of using drones on site, such as improving survey accuracy of large areas without difficulty, collecting and sharing data, and improving health and safety. Improving these areas can help companies keep their infrastructure projects on track and avoid costly delays.
To see this incredible gadget in action, watch our video snippet or read more in the link below:
https://news.mit.edu/.../researchers-introduce-new...
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