PropellerCode.com

Here is a cool little device that might make you think twice next time you see something flying around you head. This little flying insect is an ornithopter, a machine that tries to mimic a flapping creature. Robot bugs have gone through a lot of recent development due to continually improving micro technology. These little insects weighs only 65 milligrams and have wings that beat as many as 120 times per second! The only downfall is that it still requires power cords to fly, but it’s amazing it even works at all!

Uses for this tiny flying robot bug will mostly include reconnaissance missions for military and law enforcement applications. DARPA currently has incentives for creating these little machines for military purposes. The advantage of being so small is that it could enter buildings and houses and fly through the rooms and be equipped with full micro surveillance technology.

Some individuals are worried that these robot bugs could possibly be used in an invasion of personal privacy and a possible threat to civil rights. If the government starts using these robot bugs to spy on political activists that could lead to problems. However, there is little information about spy technology so we will possibly never know for sure.

So far experts say the technology isn’t quite good enough to produce such devices that actually function at a usable level. Most likely our technology will be there shortly, so we’ll have to just wait and see what comes out of it. Hopefully these little robot insects will by restricted to military reconnaissance, which would be a revolutionary way to perform investigations without risking the lives of our military soldiers. Crawling robots for reconnaissance are getting better, but a flying machine would greatly increase speed and access comparatively.

Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs.

This type of technology is commercially available on a larger scale at most hobby shops and toy stores that sell RC radio controlled toys by a company called WowWee, the creators of the Robosapien. The Dragonfly is an ornithopter, a machine that tries to mimic a flapping creature. The Dragonfly is the first radio controlled fluttering insect. It’s flying is far from perfect, but it’s amazing it works at all. The best part is they they are durable, the one I tried crashed many times and still worked. I can’t wait for the next generation model.

Dragonfly by Wowwee

Here is a snake for those of you that don’t like reptiles! It’s not slimy (though snakes never are), and it can’t bite, but it does move like one! Perhaps it even moves better than a snake because it knows how to roll instead of just sliding. This prototype it being studied by the Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. This robotic snake has the ability to climb up poles and inside of pipes and perform reconnaissance missions that no human could ever do. This snake robot is even capable of crawling, climbing, and swimming! That’s right, this robot will even climb up cracks or pipes or even swim through water like a real snake! This robot is designed using servos purchasable at hobby stores with some slight modifications. The chassis is built using a simple aluminum frame even you could make. Using common easy to purchase parts make these robots lower cost and easier to repair. Lower cost means it’s easier for people to buy them, and may possibly allow them to be commercially available. But the other cool part is that it may even be cheap enough to build your own simple prototype using the Parallax Propeller chip. The Parallax Propeller chip is perfectly suitable for this application because it even supports video which is necessary on this type of reconnaissance mission. Go for it, I think it a good idea.

Modular Snake Robots

Engage! If one of these transformer robots were on the market today I would go out and buy one. I would maybe even buy 2 or them, because then I could have transformer battles and rule the galaxy. Well maybe not rule the galaxy, but you could bring it to an RC car racetrack and start throwing the other cars of the road. On the other hand it may also be cool to have it run reconnaissance missions with full video and capability to get into anywhere… So maybe I’m just in a devious mood today, but hey what else is a transformer good for? If I were you I would definitely think about making a design like on of these with the Parallax Propeller chip. Just think, your very own transformer robot! It could even be designed to shoot an airsoft BB or something.

(well the last one has real people, but it’s worth showing anyway)