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Using static electricity, RoboBees can land and stick to surfaces


May 19, 2016

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Harvard University roboticists demonstrated that their flying microrobots, nicknamed the RoboBees, can now perch during flight to save energy, as bats, birds or butterflies do. The team turned to electrostatic adhesion to allow the RoboBees to stick to almost any surface, from glass to wood to a leaf, using an electrode patch. The patch requires about 1000 times less power to perch than it does to hover, offering to dramatically extend the operational life of the robot.Full Story

Source
Harvard Microrobotics Lab/Harvard University

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