In culmination of a decade's work, RoboBees achieve vertical
takeoff, hovering, and steering
In the very early hours of the morning, in a Harvard
robotics laboratory last summer, an insect took flight. Half the size of a
paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, it leapt a few inches, hovered
for a moment on fragile, flapping wings, and then sped along a preset route
through the air.
Like a proud parent watching a child take its first steps,
graduate student Pakpong Chirarattananon immediately captured a video of the
fledgling and emailed it to his adviser and colleagues at 3 a.m.—subject line,
"Flight of the RoboBee."