The RoboBee flies solo

In the Harvard Microrobotics Lab, on a late afternoon in August, decades of research culminated in a moment of stress as the tiny, groundbreaking Robobee made its first solo flight. Graduate student Elizabeth Farrell Helbling, Ph.D.'19, and postdoctoral fellow Noah T. Jafferis, Ph.D. from Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences caught the moment on camera. Helbling, who has worked on the project for six years, counted down: "Three, two, one, go." The bright halogens switched on and the solar-powered Robobee launched into the air. For a terrifying second, the tiny robot, still without on-board steering and control, careened towards the lights.