Research Robot insect hovers for almost 17 minutes with the same precision

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Researchers have long been working on various robots inspired by insects. Researchers at MIT have now optimized an existing robot insect to weigh less than a paperclip while being able to fly significantly faster and longer.

With a more efficient method of artificial pollination, farmers could grow fruits and vegetables in multi-story warehouses in the future, increasing yields while mitigating some of the harmful environmental impacts of agriculture.

To make this idea a reality, MIT researchers are developing robot insects that could one day swarm from mechanical beehives to quickly perform precise pollination. However, even the best bug-sized robots can't match natural pollinators like bees in terms of endurance, speed, and maneuverability.

Flying robots are more agile, faster and more precise

Now, researchers at MIT, inspired by the anatomy of these natural pollinators, have revised their previous design to develop tiny flying robots that are much more agile than previous versions: The new robots can hover for about 1,000 seconds, which is more than 100 times longer than previously demonstrated, it is reported. The robotic insect, which weighs less than a paperclip, can fly significantly faster than similar robots and perform acrobatic maneuvers like double jumps in the air.

The revised robot was designed to improve flight precision and agility while minimizing the mechanical stress on the artificial wings, allowing for faster maneuvers, higher endurance, and a longer lifespan. The new design also provides enough space to carry tiny batteries or sensors, enabling the robot to fly independently outside the lab.

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"The flight duration we demonstrated in this work is likely longer than the entire flight duration our field has been able to accumulate so far with these robotic insects. With the improved lifespan and precision of this robot, we are getting closer to some very exciting applications, such as assisted pollination," says Kevin Chen, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), head of the Soft and Micro Robotics Laboratory within the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), and lead author of an open-access paper on the new design.

Chen worked together with co-authors Suhan Kim and Yi-Hsuan Hsiao, who are studying in the EECS department, as well as EECS student Zhijian Ren and summer visiting student Jiashu Huang on the publication. The research findings were published in Science Robotics.

New design enables more power and more space

Earlier versions of the robot insect consisted of four identical units, each with two wings, assembled into a rectangular device the size of a microcassette. "But there is no insect with eight wings. In our old design, the performance of each individual unit was always better than that of the entire robot," says Chen.

This drop in performance was partly caused by the arrangement of the wings, which blew air into each other when flapping, reducing the lift forces they could generate.

With the new design, the robot is split into two halves. Each of the four identical units now has a flapping wing that points away from the center of the robot, stabilizing the wings and increasing their lift forces. With only half as many wings, this design also provides space for the robot to carry electronics.

Less effort, more power

The movement of the robot's wings is powered by artificial muscles. These tiny, soft actuators can quickly compress and expand, generating a mechanical force that causes the wings to flap. In previous designs, when the actuator's movements reached the extremely high frequencies required for flight, the devices often buckled. This reduced the robot's performance and efficiency. To address this, the researchers developed transmissions that connect the wings with the artificial muscles. These transmissions reduce the mechanical stress that limited the lifespan of previous versions. The new transmissions prevent this buckling motion, allowing the artificial muscles to endure less stress and exert more force for the wingbeat.

Compared to the old robots, we can now generate three times the torque as before, which is why we can perform very demanding and very precise trajectory flights.

Chen

Another innovation is a long wing hinge that reduces torsional stress during the flapping motion. Manufacturing the hinge, which is about 0.79 inches long but only has a diameter of 0.0079 inches, was one of the biggest challenges for the researchers.

Robot insect follows letters

When all four units are in place, the new robotic insect can hover for more than 1,000 seconds, which is almost 17 minutes, without any loss of flight precision. The new robot also achieved an average speed of 13.78 inches per second—the fastest flight researchers have recorded so far—while performing body rolls and double flips. It can even accurately trace a flight path that spells MIT.

Yet even with these design innovations, there remains a gap between the best robot insects and real animals. A bee, for example, has only two wings but can still perform fast and very controlled movements.

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The wings of bees are finely controlled by very sophisticated muscles. This level of fine-tuning is something that really fascinates us but that we have not yet been able to replicate.

Chen