Flying robot generates as much power as a flapping insect

A small robot with wings like an insect can fly and generate more power than a similarly sized animal in nature. Most flying robots, whether they use wings or propellers, have motors and gears and transmission systems to connect the components, but these can weigh the robot down and fail. Now, Tim Helps at the University of Bristol, UK, and his colleagues have designed a small robot that uses an electric field – and a droplet of oil that increases the strength of the field – to flap the wings directly, avoiding the need for a motor or a transmission system. Helps and his team tested the mechanism for a million wing flaps and found it had a steady power output that was slightly better than that of an insect muscle of the same weight. "I'm always very excited when we can achieve a better-than-nature power density," says Helps. "It's a rare thing because nature does an amazing job."