Science fiction once again comes to life. No, not flesh eating zombies but a tiny, incredibly dexterous robotic spy plane developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and built by AeroVironment . You don’t think that’s totally cool? Well, you will when you see it. What’s really cool about it is that it looks and moves just like a real hummingbird! Talk about covert surveillance!
The hummingbird drone is able to fly forward, backward, and sideways, as well as rotate clockwise and counterclockwise using only it’s two wings for propulsion and control. It is also about the same size as an actual hummingbird with a 6.5 inch wingspan and weight of 19 grams.
The little guys can currently fly for about eight minutes, which is considerably longer than it’s previous range of only 20 seconds. Engineers say this is still a prototype and are working on advancing the “humming-bot” superspies’ capabilities to complete complex reconnaissance missions.
It can perch near its surveillance subject without drawing suspicion, assuming of course that the area actually has hummingbirds. Next time you see a mysterious hummingbird outside your window you might want to think about what you’ve been up to lately. Oh,and when your kid wants to sign up for the school robotics team, you might want to let them give it a go. You never know what they might invent in the future.
As readers of this blog, you may not have James Bond-esque hummingbirds that need repair, but you likely have a few other, equally as important to you, industrial electronics that are needing repair. From power supply repair to plc repair, to drive and motor repair, our tech team is skilled and ready for action. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get to repair a rogue hummingbird-bot if it gets hung up in the wrong nest!
If you want to see a video of the “humming-bot” in action here ya go: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-robot-hummingbird-flight-video.html. Really cool!