fly

Robert Wood, a Harvard University roboticist has built a robotic fly that actually mimics the flying motion of the living version. He has only recently achieved flight with his contraption. The fly weighs only 60mg and is constructed from carbon fiber and electroactive polymers that change shape with an applied voltage. Potential applications for such a life-like insect are quite obvious. Besides unleashing the fly onto an unaware professor thus livening up his snoozefest of a lecture, DARPA, which is funding the research, probably envisions sending the fly on spy missions. The fly is currently tethered flying only in one direction and is hooked up to an external power supply.

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