A robot that can jump into flight like a bird could eliminate the need for runways for small fixed-winged drones. Birds use the powerful explosive force generated by their legs to leap into the air and start flying, but building a robot that can withstand the strong acceleration and forces involved in doing that has proved difficult. Now, Won Dong Shin at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL) and his colleagues have built a flying propellered robot called RAVEN that can walk, hop and jump into the air to start flying, with legs that work like a bird's. "Fixed-wing vehicles, like airplanes, always require a runway or a launcher, which is not found everywhere. It really requires designated infrastructure to make an airplane take off," says Shin. "But if you see a bird, they just walk around, jump and take off. They don't need any external assistance."

A robot can design, build and test objects made from folded paper, such as planes or grippers, better than a human if given the same number of attempts. Robotic laboratories can test and design materials far faster than humans, but they often rely on computer simulations to cut down on real-world testing for the robot. However, this doesn't work when testing objects that are difficult and computationally expensive to simulate, such as fluids or deformable materials like paper.

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.