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Robobee
RoboBee is a tiny robot capable of partially untethered flight, developed by a research robotics team at Harvard University. The culmination of twelve years of research, RoboBee solved two key technical challenges of micro-robotics. Engineers invented a process inspired by pop-up books that allowed them to build on a sub-millimeter scale precisely and efficiently. To achieve flight, they created artificial muscles capable of beating the wings 120 times per second. The goal of the RoboBee project is to make a fully autonomous swarm of flying robots for applications such as search and rescue, surveillance and artificial pollination. To make this feasible, researchers need to figure out how to get power supply and decision making functions, which are currently supplied to the robot via a tiny tether which is integrated with the main body. The wingspan of RoboBee makes it the smallest man-made device modeled on an insect to achieve flight. History For more than a decade, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DelFly
The DelFlyBradshaw, Nancy L., and David Lentink. "Aerodynamic and structural dynamic identification of a flapping wing micro air vehicle." AIAA conference, Hawaii. 2008.^ de Croon, G.C.H.E.; de Weerdt, E.; De Wagter, C.; Remes, B.D.W.; Ruijsink, R. (April 2012). "appearance variation cue for obstacle avoidance". Robotics, IEEE Transactions on 28 (2): 529–534. doi:10.1109/TRO.2011.2170754. is a fully controllable camera-equipped flapping wing Micro Air Vehicle or Ornithopter developed at thMicro Air Vehicle Lab of the Delft University of Technology in collaboration witWageningen University The DelFly project focuses on fully functioning systems and follows a top-down approach toward ever smaller and more autonomous flapping wing MAVs. The DelFly Micro with its 10 cm wing span and 3.07 grams is the smallest free flying controllable flapping wing MAV equipped with a camera and video transmitter. Smaller flapping wing MAVs exist, but then without an onboard camera. In partic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Micromechanical Flying Insect
The Micromechanical Flying Insect (MFI) is a miniature UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) composed of a metal body, two wings, and a control system. Launched in 1998, it is currently being researched at University of California, Berkeley., UC Berkeley. The MFI is among a group of UAVs that vary in size and function. The MFI is proving to be a practical approach for specific situations. The US Office of Naval Research and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency are funding the project. The Pentagon hopes to use the robots as covert "flies on the wall" in military operations. Other prospective uses include space exploration and search and rescue. Comparison with other UAVs There are a variety of UAVs that perform different operations. The MFI is of greatest potential use to the United States Military. There are currently various UAVs in this field that perform tasks such as gaining battlefield intelligence or being a decoy for potential missiles. In respect to gaining battlefield intel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microchip
An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components are etched onto a small, flat piece ("chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Integrated circuits are used in a wide range of electronic devices, including computers, smartphones, and televisions, to perform various functions such as processing and storing information. They have greatly impacted the field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization and enhanced functionality. Integrated circuits are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, and less expensive than those constructed of discrete components, allowing a large transistor count. The IC's mass production capability, reliability, and building-block approach to integrated circuit design have ensured the rapid adoption of standardized ICs in place of designs using discre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plastic
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding, molded, Extrusion, extruded, or Compression molding, pressed into a diverse range of solid forms. This adaptability, combined with a wide range of other properties such as low weight, durability, flexibility, chemical resistance, low toxicity, and low-cost production, has led to their widespread use around the world. While most plastics are produced from natural gas and petroleum, a growing minority are produced from renewable resources like polylactic acid. Between 1950 and 2017, 9.2 billion metric tons of plastic are estimated to have been made, with more than half of this amount being produced since 2004. In 2023 alone, preliminary figures indicate that over 400 million metric tons of plastic were produced worldwide. If global trends ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Current
An electric current is a flow of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is defined as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface. The moving particles are called charge carriers, which may be one of several types of particles, depending on the Electrical conductor, conductor. In electric circuits the charge carriers are often electrons moving through a wire. In semiconductors they can be electrons or Electron hole, holes. In an Electrolyte#Electrochemistry, electrolyte the charge carriers are ions, while in Plasma (physics), plasma, an Ionization, ionized gas, they are ions and electrons. In the International System of Units (SI), electric current is expressed in Unit of measurement, units of ampere (sometimes called an "amp", symbol A), which is equivalent to one coulomb per second. The ampere is an SI base unit and electric current is a ISQ base quantity, base quantity in the International System of Qua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piezoelectricity
Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The piezoelectric effect results from the linear electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and electrical states in crystalline materials with no inversion symmetry. The piezoelectric effect is a reversible process: materials exhibiting the piezoelectric effect also exhibit the reverse piezoelectric effect, the internal generation of a mechanical strain resulting from an applied electric field. For example, lead zirconate titanate crystals will generate measurable piezoelectricity when their static structure is deformed by about 0.1% of the original dimension. Conversely, those same crystals will change about 0.1% of their static dimension when an external electric field is applied. The inverse piezoelectric effect is used in the pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electroactive Polymers
upright=1.3, An electroactive polymer (EAP) is a polymer that exhibits a change in size or shape when stimulated by an electric field. The most common applications of this type of material are in actuators and sensors. A typical characteristic property of an EAP is that they will undergo a large amount of deformation while sustaining large forces. The majority of historic actuators are made of ceramic piezoelectric materials. While these materials are able to withstand large forces, they commonly will only deform a fraction of a percent. In the late 1990s, it has been demonstrated that some EAPs can exhibit up to a 380% strain, which is much more than any ceramic actuator. One of the most common applications for EAPs is in the field of robotics in the development of artificial muscles; thus, an electroactive polymer is often referred to as an artificial muscle. History The field of EAPs emerged back in 1880, when Wilhelm Röntgen designed an experiment in which he tested the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between those layers. Turbulence is commonly observed in everyday phenomena such as surf, fast flowing rivers, billowing storm clouds, or smoke from a chimney, and most fluid flows occurring in nature or created in engineering applications are turbulent. Turbulence is caused by excessive kinetic energy in parts of a fluid flow, which overcomes the damping effect of the fluid's viscosity. For this reason, turbulence is commonly realized in low viscosity fluids. In general terms, in turbulent flow, unsteady vortices appear of many sizes which interact with each other, consequently drag due to friction effects increases. The onset of turbulence can be predicted by the dimensionless Reynolds number, the ratio of kinetic energy to viscous damping ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one. Physical prototyping has a long history, and paper prototyping and virtual prototyping now extensively complement it. In some design workflow models, creating a prototype (a process sometimes called materialization) is the step between the Formal specification, formalization and the evaluation of an idea. A prototype can also mean a typical example of something such as in the use of the derivation prototypical. This is a useful term in identifying objects, behaviours and concepts which are considered the accepted norm and is analogous with terms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Origami
) is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use of cuts, glue, or markings on the paper. Origami folders often use the Japanese word ' to refer to designs which use cuts. In the detailed Japanese classification, origami is divided into stylized ceremonial origami (儀礼折り紙, ''girei origami'') and recreational origami (遊戯折り紙, ''yūgi origami''), and only recreational origami is generally recognized as origami. In Japan, ceremonial origami is generally called "origata" ( :ja:折形) to distinguish it from recreational origami. The term "origata" is one of the old terms for origami. The small number of basic origami folds can be combined in a variety of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Screw
A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the screw head, head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety of materials. Screws might be inserted into holes in assembled parts or a screw may form its own thread. The #Differentiation between bolt and screw, difference between a screw and a bolt is that the latter is designed to be tightened or released by torquing a Nut (hardware), nut. The screw head on one end has a slot or other feature that commonly requires a tool to transfer the twisting force. Common tools for driving screws include screwdrivers, wrenches, coins and hex keys. The head is usually larger than the body, which provides a ''bearing surface'' and keeps the screw from being driven deeper than its length; an exception being the ''set screw'' (aka grub screw). The cylindrical portion of the screw from the underside of the head t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nut (hardware)
A nut is a type of fastener with a screw thread, threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used in conjunction with a mating bolt (fastener), bolt to fasten multiple parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction with slight deformation (engineering)#Elastic deformation, elastic deformation, a slight Tension (physics), stretching of the bolt, and compression (physics), compression of the parts to be held together. In applications where vibration or rotation may work a nut loose, various locking mechanisms may be employed: lock washers, jam nuts, eccentric double nuts, specialist adhesive thread-locking fluid such as Loctite, safety pins (split pins) or lockwire in conjunction with castellated nuts, nylon inserts (nyloc nut), or slightly oval-shaped threads. Square nuts, as well as bolt heads, were the first shape made and used to be the most common largely because they were much easier to manufacture, especially by hand. While rare toda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
