Mini-robot perches like an insect

Scientists have designed flying, insect-sized robots that can perch and launch from ceilings. The robots use something called electrostatic adhesion, the same process by which statically-charged balloons stick to walls. The findings, reported in the journal Science, contribute to a decade-long Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory project called "RoboBee". The robots in this study are programmed drones, each around the size of a 10 pence coin. Dr Mirko Kovac, director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory of Imperial College, London, who was not involved in this study, told BBC News that similar robots were currently being trialled in environmental monitoring and disaster-relief efforts. Equipped with sensors, swarms of these small, relatively cheap robots, Dr Kovac explained, could alert first responders to the most intense areas of forest fires or other natural disasters.