WATCH: 'Robot Flies' Learn To Stick The Landing

A team of scientists has developed "robot flies" about the size of a quarter that can perch on almost any surface. The flies were developed at Harvard's Microbiotics Laboratory, where researchers look to Mother Nature for design inspiration. For years, they have been working on fly-sized drones that could be deployed in groups. The drones could, in theory, be outfitted with cameras and provide multiple vantage-points of a disaster, or link up to make an improvised communications network. They currently get power from wires attached to the ground, according to a paper in the journal Science.