Researchers at Harvard University announced on the 2nd that they were inspired by flies, and after more than ten years of research and development, they finally developed the world's first robot fly, weighing only 80 mg.

Kevin from Harvard University? Ma and his colleagues reported in Science that flies can make extremely unique and dexterous flying movements, such as deftly avoiding swatter and staying on flowers swaying in the wind, but scientists don't know the secret, and the superb flying skills of flies have been difficult to replicate in the laboratory. Now, due to the breakthrough of materials and processing technology, they have developed the first robot fly that can fly like a real fly.

It is not easy to make such a small robot fly, which requires some unconventional propulsion, driving and manufacturing methods. For example, a pair of ultra-thin micro wings of robot flies are made of piezoelectric materials, which can convert the applied voltage into some mechanical stresses. Power supply is also a big challenge. At present, the lightest power supply is 0.5g, which is several times the weight of the airplane. Therefore, at present, only an ultra-light copper wire can be used to supply power to machine flies, and this wire is also used to transmit control signals.

Researchers say that robot flies provide a new way to study insect flight mechanics. If problems such as power supply can be solved in the future, they will be widely used in environmental monitoring, agricultural production and other fields.